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THE 

PENNSYLVANIA 

MUSEUM    OF     ART 

LIBRARY 

PHILADELPHIA 

Call  Number 

1-.676Z    -SS 

Edward   lioldston. 

.   -ilei 
15,    Museum    Streci 
LONDON     W.C.   1 


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Molume  tl)e  &econt> 


« 


ILon&on 

WILLIAM   PICKERING 

1843 


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PRINTED  BY  C.  WHITTINGH  AM,  CHISWICS. 


LIST    OF    ENGRAVINGS. 

VOL.  II. 

jfiEtccntlj  Century 

39.  Limerick  Mitre. 

40.  Pope  Sixtus  IV. 

Cuts.     A  Ring,  from  llie  Louvre,  at  Paris.     A  Monstrance,  from  a  picture  by  Israel  van  Meekin. 

41.  Occleve  and  Henry  V. 

42.  Pyrrhus  receiving  Knighthood. 

Cut.     A  Knocker. 

43.  Christine  de  Pisan  presenting  her  Book  to  the  Queen  of  France. 

44.  Lydgate  presenting  his  Book  to  the  Earl  of  Salisbury. 

45.  Birth  of  St.  Edmund. 

46.  King  John,  and  King  Henry  I. 

Cuts.     Specimen  of  Arras,  from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum.     Reading  Desk,  from  Newstead 
Abbey. 

47.  Margaret,  Queen  of  Henry  VI.  and  her  Court. 

Cuts.     A  Border  of  Daisies,  and  a  Coach  of  the  fifteenth  century,  from  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum. 

48.  Henry  VI.  and  his  Court. 

Cuts.     Herald  bearing  a  Banner,  from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum.     Reading  Desk,  from  a  MS. 
at  Paris. 

49.  John  Talbot  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  presenting  his  Book  to  Queen  Margaret. 

Cuts.     A  Banner,  and  Henry  VI.  delivering  to  Talbot  his  sword,  from  the  same  MS. 

50.  Effigy  of  Sir  Richard  Vernon. 

51.  Proclamation  of  a  Tournament. 

Cut.     A  Royal  Marriage. 

52.  The  Lady  of  the  Tournament  presenting  the  Prize. 

Cut.     Marie,  Duchess  of  Burgundy. 

53.  Philip,  Duke  of  Burgundy. 

Cuts.     Ornament,  from  an  early  printed  Book.     A  Ship  of  the  fifteenth  century,  from  a  MS.  in  the 
British  Museum. 

54.  A  Knight  of  the  Garter. 

Cut.    A  Book  Case. 

55.  Tobit. 

Cuts.     A  Mirror,  and  a  Clock,  from  a  MS.  at  Paris. 

56.  Old  Age  and  Poverty. 

Cut  of  a  Fountain,  from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum. 

57.  Figures  from  the  Roman  de  la  Rose. 

Cuts.     Ornamental  Border.     Organ,  from  a  painting  by  Lucas  van  Lev  den. 

58.  Minstrels  from  the  Roman  de  la  Rose. 

59.  Queen  Margaret  of  Scotland. 

Cut.     Head  of  Lady  Vernon. 

60.  Margaret,  Queen  of  James  I. 

Cut.     Isabella  of  Bavaria  and  Attendants. 

61.  Masque  of  Charles  VI.  of  France. 

62.  The  Canterbury  Pilgrimage. 

Cut.     A  Reliquary,  at  Paris. 

63.  Richard  de  Beauchamp  Earl  of  Warwick,  Richard  Nevil  Earl  of  Salisbury,  and 

King  Richard  III. 

Cut.     A  Knife,  from  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre,  at  Paris. 

64.  Isabella,  Wife  of  William  de  Beauchamp,  Anne,  Queen  of  Richard  III.,  ami  Hi  m.\ 

de  Beauchamp  Duke  of  Warwick. 
Cut.     A  Carving  Knife,  from  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre,  at  Paris. 


LIST   OF   ENGRAVINGS. 

65.  Shooting  at  the  Butt. 

66.  The  Sovereigns  of  Europe  worshipping  St.  George. 

Cuts.     Helmets  shewing  the  mode  of  applying  the  Mantling,  and  a  Lamp  of  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
century. 

67.  Elevation  of  the  Host. 

Cut.     An  Iron  Lock  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

68.  A  Censer. 

69.  A  Reliquary. 

Cut.     Henry  the  Sixth's  Ink  Case. 

70.  Cup  by  Andrea  de  Mantegna. 

Cuts.     Jewellery,  from  a  picture  by  Hemlinck.     A  Cup,  from  a  MS.  at  Paris. 

71.  Niello  Cup. 

Cut.     A  portion  of  an  Antipendium. 


Strtccnrtj  Century. 

72.  Heralds  announcing  the  Death  of  Charles  VI.  to  his  Son. 

Cut.    The  Monks  of  St.  Denis  bringing  their  Relics  to  a  dying  Prince,  from  a  MS.  in  the  British 
Museum. 

73.  Arthur  Prince  of  Wales. 

Cut.     A  Piper,  from  a  drawing  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris. 

74.  Horse  and  attendant. 

Cut.     Tents,  from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum. 

75.  Troy  Town. 

76.  Figures  from  Tapestries. 

Cut.    A  Bag. 

77.  Head  Dresses. 

Cut.     Figures  in  Armour. 

78.  St.  Agnes. 

Cuts.     Ornamental  Pavement,  from  a  MS.  at  Paris.     A  Domestic  Altar,  from  a  MS.  at  Oxford. 

79.  Constancia  Duchess  of  Lancaster,  Wife  of  John  of  Gaunt. 

Cut.     A  House  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

80.  Queen  Philippa. 

Cut.     Coat  of  Arms,  and  Pixis  ad  Oblatas. 

81.  Queen  Leonora  of  Arragon,  King  John  of  Portugal,  and  Queen  Johanna  of  Castile. 

Cut.     A  Just  between  Richard  Beauchamp  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  Sir  Pandulf  Malacet. 

82.  From  a  Brass  at  Ipswich. 

Cut .     Ornamental  Border.     A  Cup  designed  by  Holbein. 
S3.  Frances  I. 

Cut.     A  Girdle  and  Purse. 

84.  The  Earl  of  Surrey. 

Cuts.     Knives,  and  a  Fork. 

85.  Princess  Elizabeth. 

86.  Part  of  a  Room. 

Cut.     A  Saltceller,  from  a  design  by  Holbein. 

87.  A  Dagger  and  Sword. 

Cuts.     A  Glaive,  and  a  Catch-pole,  from  the  Tower  of  London 

88.  The  Clasp  of  Charles  V. 

Cut.     A  Theatre,  from  an  early  copy  of  Terence. 

89.  A  Funeral  Pall. 

90.  Clock  presented  by  Henry  VIII.  to  Anne  Boleyn. 

Cuts.     Clock  Weight,  and  a  Chandelier. 

91.  Nautilus  Cup. 

Cut.     Two  Spoons,  from  Originals  at  Paris. 

92.  Cup  in  the  Queen's  Collection. 

Cuts.     Rim  of  Enamelled  Pottery,  from  Paris;  and  a  Puzzle  Cup. 

93.  Cup  belonging  to  the  Goldsmith's  Company. 

Cut.     A  Table  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

94.  Hour  Glass. 

Cut.     A  Bracket  for  an  Hour-glass,  at  Hurst,  in  Berkshire. 


CORRIGENDA. 


VOL.  II. 


PLATE  41. 

For  "  Occleve  is  generally  considered  as  having  flourished  about  the  year  1520,"  read 
1420. 

PLATE  48. 

The  figure  holding  the  banner  is  certainly  not  "  a  Herald,"  officers-of-arms  being  very 
seldom,  if  ever,  represented  in  armour,  or  bearing  on  their  tabards  such  a  number  of 
quarterings  :  the  person  here  drawn  was  most  probably  intended  for  the  Earl  of  Shrews- 
bury himself. 

PLATE  59. 

The  Saint  represented  behind  the  Queen  is  most  probably  meant  for  the  Archangel 
Michael,  his  wings  being  perceptible  below  the  pouldrons  of  the  armour.  He  holds  also 
theareat  anaelical  standard,  charsred  witli  the  cross  and  the  names  Jhc — Jesus  Maria.  Tin; 
Royal  Armorial  Ensigns  introduced  into  this  painting  are  singular  for  being  represented 
on  a  lozenge  at  the  time  the  Queen  was  married  ;  like  the  very  remarkable  instance  of  the 
arms  of  Queen  Mary  of  England  contained  in  Willement's  Regal  Heraldry,  Plate  XIX. 
It  will  be  observed  also,  that  in  the  coat  of  Scotland  the  double  tressure  passes  dorcii  (ji/ 
the  fine  of  impalement  instead  of  terminating  at  it,  according  to  the  usual  heraldical  rule 

PLATE  69. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  centre  branch  of  this  beautiful  Reliquary  was  intended 
to  support  a  third  case  of  crystal ;  and  from  the  superior  size  it  was  most  probably  de- 
signed to  receive  a  fragment  of  the  true  cross.  The  cylinders  at  the  sides  would  then 
have  been  appropriated  to  the  containing  reliques  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  St.  John,  in 
conformity  with  the  usual  arrangement  in  representations  of  the  crucifixion.  The  cross- 
patee,  above  the  centre  branch,  appears  to  have  been  despoiled  of  the  jewels  with  which 
it  was  decorated. 

PLATE  71. 

The  subjects  engraven  on  the  Niello  Cup  appear  to  be  taken  from  scripture,  and  pro- 
bably might  be  all  identified  if  larger  copies  were  to  be  taken  of  the  whole  number. 

PLATE  88. 

The  small  compartments  in  the  outer  border  of  the  Imperial  Clasp,  arc  lockets,  or  boxes, 
covered  with  glass  or  crystal  and  lined  with  pink  silk,  intended  to  contain  fragments  of 
bone,  stuff,  &c,  being  reliques  of  the  saints  whose  names  are  written  on  the  labels  in- 
serted. This  explanation  will  account  for  those  names  being  all  expressed  in  the  genitive 
case,  Martini,  Andrea1,  Margarita1,  Nicolai,  Sancti  Petri,  Ypoliti,  Constantii,  Lawrentii. 


PLATE  89. 

Instead  of  the  words  stated  to  be  embroidered  on  this  very  rich  pall  being  as  conjectured, 
"  In  te  Domine  speramuo  or  speramus,"  the  latter  word  is  speravi,  I  have  trusted  ;  and  on 
the  other  edge  of  the  pall  is  to  be  read  the  remainder  of  the  same  verse  out  of  the  "  Te 
Deum,"  "  non  confunder  in  eternum." 


PLATE  92. 

By  a  mistake  in  the  printed  title  this  Cup  is  said  to  be  of  the  time  of  Charles  II.  instead 
of  having  been  in  his  possession.     The  date  on  the  print  is  the  correct  one. 

The  vignette  does  not  represent  "a  bell,"  but  two  vessels  of  the  kind,  usually  called 
"  Puzzle-cups  ;"  the  device  being  that  both  should  be  filled  and  emptied  without  spilling 
the  wine  from  either.  This  was  done  by  reversing  the  figure,  filling  both  the  cups,  which 
would  then  be  upright,  first  drinking  the  contents  of  the  larger  cup,  formed  by  the 
lower  part  of  the  dress :  the  smaller  vessel  remaining  horizontally  suspended  within  the 
arch  where  it  swings,  the  wine  from  it  might  be  securely  taken  by  bending  down  the 
figure.     The  cup  is  evidently  the  work  of  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


• 


•-■ 


THE  LIMERICK  MITRE. 


ROM  a  curious  passage  in  the  an- 
cient "  Ceremoniale"  of  the  catholic 
Bishops,  it  appears  that  each  prelate 
was  expected  to  possess  three  dif- 
ferent mitres,  the  precious  (or  best) 
mitre  (pretiosa),  formed  of  plates  of 
gold  or  silver,  adorned  with  gems  and 
precious  stones  ;  the  mitre  of  orfrais 
(auriphrygiata),  also  ornamented, 
but  much  less  richly,  and  without 
the  plates  of  gold  or  silver  ;  and  the 
simple  mitre  (simplex),  without  any 
rich  ornament  to  distinguish  it*. 
The  superb  mitre,  of  which  we  give 
an  engraving,  and  which  was  first  described  by  Dr.  Milner  in  the  seventeenth 
volume  of  the  Archseologia,  answers  to  the  description  of  the  first  of  these 
classes,  and  was  the  one  used  by  the  bishop  of  Limerick,  in  Ireland,  on  occa- 
sions of  great  ceremony.  At  the  time  Dr.  Milner  examined  it,  it  was  pre- 
served, along  with  an  equally  handsome  episcopal  crosier  belonging  to  the 
same  see,  in  the  possession  of  a  private  gentleman.  Its  date  is  fixed  by  the 
following  inscription  round  the  rim  : 

Cornelius  2D'Dcagf)  ffipiscopuo  Himcriccncis  anno  Domini  {B.\\\\"  ....  2Dctarjo  me  fieri  fecit. 

From  the  space  occupied  by  the  part  of  the  inscription  erased,  and  the 

known  period  of  O'Deagh's  pontificate,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  date  is 

1408.     Another  inscription,  in  a  small  compartment,  has  preserved  the  name 

of  the  maker : — 

Zi>omas  2D'€artp  artifej:  faciebam. 

The  body  of  this  mitre,  both  before  and  behind,  consists  of  thin  silver 
lamina}  gilt,  and  adorned  with  flowers  composed  of  an  infinite  number  of  small 
pearls.  The  borders  and  ornamental  pannel  or  style  down  the  middle,  on 
both  sides,  is  of  the  same  substance,  but  thicker,  being  worked  into  mouldings, 
vine-leaves,  &c,  and  enriched  with  enchased  crystals,  pearls,  garnets,  emeralds, 


*  Una  pretiosa  tlicitur,  quia  gemmis  et  lapidibus  pretiosis,  vel  laminis  aureis  vel  argenteis  con- 
texta  esse  solet ;  altera  auriphrygiata,  sine  gemmis  et  sine  laminis  aureis  vel  argenteis,  sed  vel 
aliquibus  parvis  margaritis  composita,  vel  ex  serico  albo  intermixto,  vel  ex  tela  aurea  simplici,  sine 
laminis  vel  margaritis;  tertia,  quee  simplex  vocatur,  sine  auro,  ex  simplici  serico  Damasceno,  vel 
alio,  aut  etiam  linea,  ex  tela  alba  confecta,  rubeis  laciniis,  seu  frangiis  et  vittis  pendentibus. 
Ceremon.  lib.  i.  c.  17. 


amethysts,  and  other  precious  stones,  several  of  which  are  of  a  very  large  size. 
Near  the  apex  or  point  of  the  mitre  in  front  is  the  following  inscription,  dis- 
posed in  the  form  of  a  cross,  and  covered  with  a  crystal  of  the  same  shape. 


E?oc  eiunum  Ciucis  crit  in  coelo. 

In  a  corresponding  situation  on  the  other  side  of  the  mitre,  is  the  continua- 
tion of  the  inscription  under  a  similar  crystal. 

Cum  DomiruiB  afc  juBitanTium  tonurit. 

The  infulse,  or  pendent  ornaments,  which  hung  down  the  back  of  the  bishop, 
are  altogether  twenty-one  inches  long.  They  had  been  accidentally  detached 
from  the  mitre,  but  were  preserved  along  with  it.  They  likewise  consist  for 
the  most  part  of  silver  plates,  gilt,  and  in  like  manner  ornamented  with 
innumerable  small  pearls,  disposed  in  the  form  of  leaves  and  flowers.  On  the 
lower  part  of  them  are  embossed  elegant  niches,  or  tabernacles,  one  of  which 
contains  the  figure  of  the  angel  Gabriel  (with  the  usual  label),  the  other  the 
Virgin  Mary.  They  terminate  in  a  rich  gold  fringe.  The  back  of  the  mitre 
is  exhibited  in  the  engraving,  in  order  to  show  these  vittce,  and  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  attached  to  the  mitre.  The  back  and  front  of  the  mitre  itself, 
as  far  as  regards  the  ornaments,  are  exact  counterparts  of  each  other. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  the  episcopal  mitre,  in  its  present  form,  open  and 
double  pointed,  was  not  introduced  before  the  ninth  or  tenth  century ;  and 
even  then  it  seems  to  have  been  much  lower  in  shape  than  at  a  later  period. 
In  the  earlier  drawings  in  MSS.  the  mitre  is  represented  as  very  short.  The 
mitre  of  William  of  Wykeham,  of  the  fourteenth  century,  is  ten  inches  in 
height ;  the  Limerick  Mitre  measures  thirteen ;  in  the  sixteenth  century  the 
height  had  been  increased  to  eighteen  inches.  In  the  eleventh  century  the 
popes  began  to  grant  to  abbots  and  priors  the  privilege  of  wearing  the  mitre. 
At  a  somewhat  later  period  a  regulation  was  made  that  the  mitred  abbots,  who 
were  exempt  from  episcopal  jurisdiction,  should  be  restrained  to  the  second 
class  of  mitre  (mentioned  above),  and  that  the  non-exempt  abbots  and  priors 
should  be  allowed  to  use  only  the  third  class  or  simple  mitre.  It  does  not, 
however,  seem  certain  that  this  decree  was  always  strictly  observed. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  manuscript  of  the 
fifteenth  century  in  the  British  Museum,  MS.  Burney,  No.  175,  containing  a 
copy  of  the  Noctes  Atticse  of  Aulus  Gellius,  written  between  the  years  1479 
and  1494. 


POPE  SIXTUS  IV. 


IXTUS  the  Fourth  holds  a  place  among 
those  popes  who  were  most  celebrated 
for  their  patronage  of  literature  and  the 
arts,  though  his  pontificate  was  not  very 
long,  for  he  was  raised  to  the  papal 
chair  in  1471,  and  died  in  1484.  He 
interfered  little  in  the  affairs  of  Europe, 
though  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign  he 
was  much  occupied  in  the  wars  with  the 
Turks.  Though  obstinate  in  his  opi- 
nions or  measures,  he  was  remarkably 
easy  in  dispensing  his  favours,  and  gave 
promotions  and  places  to  all  petitioners 
without  discrimination.  He  spent  great  sums  of  money  in  raising  splendid 
buildings ;  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  pope  who  caused  his  effigy 
to  be  placed  on  his  coins.  His  name  will  ever  be  remembered  among 
scholars  as  the  chief  founder  of  the  Library  of  the  Vatican.  This  Library  is 
said  to  have  been  first  erected  by  Pope  Nicholas  V.,  who  occupied  the  chair 
from  1447  to  1455  ;  in  the  short  pontificate  of  Calistus  III.  (1455—1458)  the 
books  collected  by  his  predecessor  were  dispersed ;  but  the  library  was 
reestablished  by  Sixtus  IV.,  who  appointed  Platina  to  be  librarian.  It  was 
again  destroyed  in  the  sixteenth  century  at  the  sacking  of  Rome  by  the 
army  of  Charles  V. ;  but  was  restored  by  Sixtus  V.,  who  occupied  the  papal 
chair  from  1585  to  1590,  and  who  enriched  it  with  great  numbers  of  books 
and  manuscripts. 

The  portrait  we  have  here  given  is  taken  from  a  painting  by  Pietro  della 
Francesca,  preserved  in  the  museum  of  the  Vatican.  The 
pope  is  dressed  in  the  costume  which  he  wore  in  the 
interior  of  his  palace.  He  has  a  cape  of  scarlet  cloth 
bordered  with  ermine.  The  rochet  or  tunic  is  of  linen, 
and  the  soutane,  or  cassock,  of  white  wool.  His  shoes 
are  red,  with  a  cross  of  gold.  The  chair  is  of  a  very 
classic  form ;  it  has  a  cushion  of  crimson  velvet,  with  a 
fringe  of  red  wool  mixed  with  threads  of  gold. 

Pietro  della  Francesca  was  a  native  of  Tuscany,  and  was  one  of  the  greatest 
painters  of  his  age.     He  was  employed  by  Pope  Nicholas  V.  to  ornament  the 


Vatican  with  frescoes.  According  to  the  Biographie  Universelle,  he  was  born 
at  the  end  of  the  15th  (?  14th)  century,  became  blind  about  1457,  and  died 
at  the  age  of  86,  about  1483.  If,  however,  he  painted  the  portrait  of  Sixtus  IV., 
these  dates  (which  are  only  founded  on  conjecture)  must  be  altogether  wrong. 
The  ring,  of  which  a  cut  is  given  in  the  margin  of  the  foregoing  page,  is 
preserved  in  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre  at  Paris.  The  subject  below  is  taken 
from  an  engraving  by  Israel  Van  Meekin,  and  represents  a  Monstrance,  or 
vessel  used  to  hold  the  host  in  the  Romish  ceremonies. 


OCCLEVE  PRESENTING  HIS  BOOK  TO  HENRY  V. 


i 


7 


ANY  illuminated  manuscripts  contain  drawings  re- 
presenting an   author  presenting  his    book  to   his 
patron,  and  these  furnish  us  with  portraits  of  the 
literary  men  as  well  as  of  the  kings  and  princes  of 
former  days,   in  cases  where  otherwise  we  should 
have  no  such  memorials  of  them.     The  circumstances  under  which 
it  was  painted,  and  a  comparison  with  other  known  portraits,  leave 
us  no  room  to  doubt  that  the  figure  in  the  accompanying  plate  is 
an  accurate    and  carefully  executed  portrait  of  Henry  V.,    the 
conqueror  of  France  and  the  hero  of  Agincourt,  drawn  when  he 
was  Prince  of  Wales.     The  other  figure  is  without  doubt  an  equally 
good  portrait  of  the  poet  Occleve,  whose  poems   are  contained 
in  the  manuscript  from  which  the  drawing  is  taken.     It  is  pre- 
served in  the  British  Museum,  MS.  Arundel,  No.  38 ;  and  is  of 
course  the  identical  volume  which  the  poet  presented  to  his  patron. 
Occleve  is  generally  considered  as  having  flourished  about  the  year 
1520 ;  but  this  book  must  have  been  written  some  years  before 
that  time,  as  Henry  became  king  of  England  in  1413. 

Little  is  known  of  the  personal  history  of  this  poet ;  and  few  of 
his  works  have  been  printed.  In  the  picture  he  is  represented  in 
the  dress  of  a  gentleman ;  and  we  know  that  his  profession  was 
the  law.  He  tells  us  in  his  own  poems  that  he  had  learnt  poetry 
of  his  "  mayster"  Chaucer  ;  — 

"  My  dere  mayster,  God  his  soul  quite, 

And  fader,  Chaucer  fayne  would  have  me  taught, 

But  I  was  dule,  and  learned  lyte  or  naught. 

Alas  !  my  worthie  maister  honorable, 
This  londis  verray  tresour  and  richesse, 
Deth  by  thy  deth  hathe  harme  irreparable 
Unto  us  done  ;  hir  vengeable  duresse 
Dispoiled  hath  this  lond  of  the  sweetnesse 
Of  rhetoryke,  for  unto  Tullius 
Was  never  man  so  like  amongest  us." 


-o  ^»> 


These  few  lines  will  be  sufficient  to  show  that  Occleve's  style  is  not  without 
merit ;  they  have,  indeed,  much  of  the  harmony  which  had  been  introduced 
by  Chaucer  into  the  English  poetry.  But  the  subjects  he  chose  were  not 
very  favourable  for  the  exhibition  of  poetic  talent ;  and  he  has  too  much  of 
the  flatness  which  characterises  the  writings  of  Lydgate.  The  writers  of  this 
period  were  much  overrated  by  the  poets  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
even  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth,  the  pastoral  poet  Browne, 
who  in  one  of  his  elegies  borrows  a  story  of  Occleve,  speaks  of  the  older  poet 
in  the  following  elegant  lines : — 

"  Wei  I  wot,  the  man  that  first 

Sung  this  lay,  r'ld  quenche  his  thirst 

Deeply  as  did  ever  one 

In  the  Muses  Helicon. 

Many  times  he  hath  been  seene 

With  the  faeries  on  the  greene, 

And  to  them  his  pipe  did  sound 

As  they  danced  in  a  round ; 

Mickle  solace  would  they  make  him, 

And  at  midnight  often  wake  him, 

And  convey  him  from  his  roome 

To  a  fielde  of  yellow  broome, 

Or  into  the  medowes  where 

Mints  perfume  the  gentle  aire, 

And  where  Flora  spreads  her  treasure, 

There  they  would  begin  their  measure. 

If  it  chanced  night's  sable  shrowds 

Muffled  Cynthia  up  in  clowds, 

Safely  home  they  then  would  see  him, 

And  from  brakes  and  quagmires  free  him. 

There  are  few  such  swaines  as  he 

Now-a-dayes  for  harmonie." 

Occleve's  chief  work  was  a  metrical  version  of  the  celebrated  treatise  of 
Egidius,  De  Regimine  Principum,  a  work  on  the  education  and  government 
of  princes,  which  he  dedicated  to  prince  Henry.  Many  of  his  minor  poems 
are  found  scattered  through  different  manuscripts. 

Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  the  same  MS.  which  furnished  the  subject 
for  the  plate. 


■ 


PYRRHUS  RECEIVING  THE  HONOUR  OF  KNIGHTHOOD. 


EASONS  of  considerable  force  are  ad- 
duced by  M.  Jubinal,  in  his  splendid 
work  on  Early  Tapestries,  for  beheving 
that  the  Tapestry  from  which  the  ac- 
companying plate  is  taken,  was  made  in 
the  earlier  part  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  tapestry  itself  consists  of  three 
compartments,  all  taken  from  the  then 
popular  subject  of  the  war  of  Troy.  The 
first  compartment  represents  the  city  of 
Troy,  with  the  arrival  of  Panthesilea 
queen  of  the  Amazons  to  succour  the 
Trojans.  The  second  represents  a  battle,  in  which  ^Eneas,  Polydamas, 
Diomedes,  and  Panthesilea,  are  engaged  in  combat.  In  the  third,  which  forms 
the  subject  of  our  plate,  we  see  Pyrrhus  the  son  okSX  Achilles,  under  a  rich 
tent,  receiving  the  honour  of  Knighthood,  with  all  the  ceremonies  practised  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  Ajax  and  Agamemnon  are  assisting  at  the  ceremony ;  the 
former  is  buckling  the  belt  of  the  young  hero.  An  esquire  is  fixing  his  spur 
on  his  foot.     Underneath  are  the  following  lines, — 

"  Loco  patris  Pirrus  statuitur ; 
Polidamas  per  hunc  succubuit : 
Philimines  item  comprimitur ; 
Diomedes  sic  morte  caruit." 

It  is  possible  that  the  ornamental  work  in  this  tapestry  may  owe  something  of 
its  detail  to  the  imagination  of  the  original  artist;  yet  a  comparison  with 
other  monuments  of  the  time  is  sufficient  to  convince  us  that  the  costume  and 
armour  may  be  considered  as  very  fair  specimens  of  what  was  worn  by  sove- 
reigns and  princes  during  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  history  of  this  tapestry  is  remarkable.  It  is  said  to  have  belonged 
once  to  the  famous  Bayard,  and  remained  in  the  castle  in  which  he  was  born 
(an  edifice  seated  on  the  summit  of  a  hill  which  commands  the  banks  of  the 
river  Isere),  until  the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  When  the  castle 
was  ravaged  by  the  democrats  in  the  great  revolution,  this  tapestry  was  over- 
looked, and  escaped  destruction  by  a  mere  accident.     In  1807,  it  was  disco- 


vered  in  the  Chateau  de  Bayard  by  a  distinguished  artist  of  Lyon,  M. 
Richard,  who  bought  it  of  the  proprietor  of  the  place,  and  thus  saved  it  a 
second  time  from  imminent  destruction,  threatened  in  this  instance  by  the 
neglect  of  its  possessor.  From  M.  Richard  it  passed,  in  1837,  to  M.  Achille 
Jubinal,  who  has  given  a  faithful  representation  of  it  in  his  work  on  Tapes- 
tries, and  who  afterwards  presented  it  to  the  Bibliotheque  du  Roi  at  Paris. 
It  now  adorns  the  wall  of  one  of  the  stair-cases  in  that  noble  establishment. 

Our  initial  letter,  which  represents  St.  Mark  the  Evangelist,  is  taken  from 
the  same  printed  volume  which  has  furnished  us  with  initials  representing  the 
three  other  Evangelists.  The  wood-cut  at  the  foot  of  the  present  page  repre- 
sents an  iron  knocker  of  the  fifteenth  century,  in  the  possession  of  M.  Dugue 
of  Paris.     It  is  seven  inches  and  a  half  long. 


CHRISTINE  DE  PISAN, 

PRESENTING  HER  BOOK  TO  THE  QUEEN  OF  FRANCE. 

HE  accompanying  plate  is  taken  from  MS.  Harl.  No. 
6431,  a  splendid  volume,  written  in  the  earlier  years 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  filled  with  illuminations,  and 
containing  a  large  collection  of  the  writings  in  prose 
and  verse  of  Christine  de  Pisan.  The  illumination 
represented  in  our  plate  is  a  remarkably  interesting 
representation  of  the  interior  of  a  room  in  a  royal 
palace  of  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  ;  the  ceiling  supported 
by  elegant  rafters  of  wood,  the  couch  (of  which  we  have  few  specimens 
at  this  early  period),  the  carpet  thrown  over  the  floor,  and  several  other 
articles,  are  worthy  of  notice.  But  the  picture  is  valuable  in  another 
point  of  view  :  it  contains  portraits  of  two  celebrated  women,  Christine 
de  Pisan,  the  poetess,  and  Isabelle  of  Bavaria,  the  queen  of  France,  to 
whom  Christine  is  represented  as  presenting  this  identical  volume.  It  is 
somewhat  remarkable,  that  the  compiler  of  the  Harleian  Catalogue  represents 
it  as  doubtful  for  whom  the  book  was  made  ;  the  first  poem,  to  which  this  pic- 
ture forms  the  illustration,  is  addressed  to  the  queen : — 

"  Le  corps  enclin  vers  vous  m'adresce, 
En  saluant  par  grant  humblece, 
Pry  Dieu  qu'il  vous  tiengne  en  souffranee 
Lone  temps  vive,  et  apres  l'oultrance 
De  la  mort  vous  doint  la  richece 
De  Paradis,  qui  point  ne  cesse. 
*  *  #  # 

Haulte  dame,  en  qui  sont  tous  biens, 
Et  ma  tressouverainne,  je  viens 
Vers  vous  comme  vo  creature, 
Pour  ce  livre  cy  que  je  tiens 
Vous  presenter,  ou  il  n'a  riens 
En  histoire  n'en  escripture, 
Que  n'aye  en  ma  pensee  pure 
Pris  ou  stile  que  je  detiens, 
Du  seul  sentement  que  retiens 
Des  dons  de  Dieu  et  de  nature ; 
Quoy  que  mainte  aultre  creature 
En  ait  plus  en  fait  et  maintiens. 
Et  sont  ou  volume  compris 
Plusieurs  livres,  esquieulx  j'ay  pris 
A  parler  en  maintes  manieres 
Differens,  et  pour  ce  l'empris, 
Que  on  en  devient  plus  appris 
D'oyr  de  diverges  matieres." 


After  more  verses  of  this  kind,  Christine  proceeds  to  say  that,  since  she  had 
received  the  queen's  order  to  make  the  volume  for  her,  she  had  caused  it  to 
he  written,  chaptered  (i.  e.  adorned  with  initials),  and  illuminated,  in  the  best 
manner  in  her  power  : — 

"  Si  l'ay  fait,  ma  dame,  ordener, 
Depuis  que  je  sceus  que  assener 
Le  devoye  a  vous,  si  que  ay  sceu, 
Tout  au  mieulx,  et  le  parfiner, 
Descapre,  et  bien  enluminer, 
Des  que  vo  command  en  receu,"  etc. 

Christine  de  Pisan  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  women  of  her  time.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Thomas  de  Pisan,  a  famous  scholar  of  Bologna,  who,  in 
1368,  when  his  daughter  was  five  years  of  age,  went  to  Paris  at  the  invitation 
of  Charles  V.  who  made  him  his  astrologer.  Thomas  de  Pisan  was  made  rich 
by  the  munificence  of  his  royal  patron,  and  Christine,  greedy  of  learning  like 
her  father,  was  educated  with  care,  and  became  herself  celebrated  as  one  of 
the  most  learned  ladies  of  the  age  in  which  she  lived.  She  married  a  gentle- 
man of  Picardy,  named  Stephen  Caste],  whom  the  king  immediately  appointed 
one  of  his  notaries  and  secretaries.  But  the  prosperity  of  this  accomplished 
family  was  destined  to  be  suddenly  cut  short.  Charles  V.  died  in  1380  ;  the 
pension  of  Thomas  de  Pisan  ended  with  the  life  of  his  patron,  and,  reduced  to 
comparative  poverty,  he  died  broken-hearted ;  and  Stephen  Castel  was,  after 
a  few  years,  carried  off  by  a  contagious  disease.  Christine  was  thus  left  a 
widow,  in  poverty,  with  three  children  depending  upon  her  for  their  support. 
From  this  time  she  dedicated  herself  to  literary  compositions,  and  by  the 
fertility  of  her  talent  obtained  patrons  and  protectors. 

Thus  Christine,  when  she  had  retired  from  the  world  personally  (for  she 
had  sought  tranquillity  in  a  convent),  was  brought  before  it  more  directly  by 
her  writings.  She  was  thrown  on  troubled  and  dangerous  times,  and,  though 
a  woman,  she  did  not  hesitate  to  employ  her  talent  in  the  controversies  which 
then  tore  her  adopted  country.  On  one  side  she  took  an  active  part  with  the 
celebrated  chancellor  Gerson  in  writing  against  the  Roman  de  la  Rose  ;  while 
on  the  other,  by  her  political  treatises,  she  attempted  to  arrest  the  storm  which 
was  breaking  over  France  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  fifteenth  century.  If  she 
was  not  successful  in  her  efforts,  she  nevertheless  merited  the  gratitude  of  her 
contemporaries,  and  the  admiration  of  future  times.  She  looked  forward  in 
hope  to  better  times,  and  lived  at  least  to  see  them  mend :  both  Gerson  and 
Christine  welcomed  by  their  writings  the  appearance  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans. 

Tbe  writings  of  Christine  are  extremely  numerous,  both  in  prose  and  verse, 
and  are  historically  of  great  importance.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  zeal  of  our 
continental  neighbours  for  their  early  literature  will  lead  to  their  publication. 
A  clever  and  interesting  publication,  by  M.  Thomassy,  entitled  Essai  sur  les 
Ecrits  poll  ti(j  ties  de  Cliristine  de  Pisan,  su'wi  d'une  notice  litter  aire  et  de  Pieces 
inedites,  has  already  paved  the  way.  The  manuscripts  are  tolerably  nume- 
rous. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  the  same  volume 
which  furnished  the  illumination. 


-c* 


LYDGATE  PRESENTING  HIS  BOOK  TO  THE 
EARL  OF  SALISBURY. 

HE  accompanying  picture  is  taken  from  a  drawing 
inserted  in  a  manuscript  in  the  British  Museum 
(MS.  Harl.  No.  4826),  executed  apparently  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VII.,   or  in  that  of  Henry 
VIII.  ;    but  it  is  evidently  a  careful  copy  of  an 
older   illumination   (now  lost),   which  was  con- 
temporary with  the  persons    represented.     This 
picture  affords  us  portraits   of  two  remarkable 
men  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Thomas  de  Monta- 
cute  earl  of  Salisbury,  so  famous  in  the  history  of 
the  wars  of  Henry  V.,   and  John   Lydgate,   the  poet  of  Bury-St.-Edmunds. 
In  the  MS.  it  is  stated  that  the  subject  of  this  picture  is  "  Lidgate  presenting 
his  booke,  called  ye  Pilgrime,  unto  yc  Earle  of  Salisbury :"  and  the  original 
illumination  was  no  doubt  attached  to  the  presentation  copy  of  the  book  thus 
indicated,  of  which  it  has  been  supposed  that  there  is  no  copy  now  extant. 
The  Harleian  manuscript  from  which  we  have  taken  our  engraving  contains 
the  Life  of  St.  Edmund,  and  the  Poem  on  the  Government  of  Princes,  both 
by  Lydgate,  with  the  poems  of  Occleve.     Stowe  enumerates  among  Lyd- 
gate's  works,  the   "  Pilgrimage  of  the  World,  by  the  commandement  of  the 
Earle  of  Salisburie,  1426  ;"  which  is  no  doubt  the  book  to  which  our  picture 
belonged,  the  date  of  which  is  thus  established.     Warton  (History  of  English 
Poetry,  vol.  I.,  p.  clxxxvii.,  New  Edit.)  ascribes  to  Lydgate,  with  seeming 
justice,  another  poem  with  a  somewhat  similar  title,  printed  by  Caxton  at 
Westminster  in   1483,   "The  Pylgremage  of  the   Sowle,  translated  oute  of 
Frensshe  into  Englisshe."    According  to  the  colophon  at  the  end,  this  work 
was  completed  "in  the  vigyle  of  Seint  Bartholomew,"  in  the  year  1413. 

The  pilgrim  in  our  picture  is  only  an  emblematical  personage.  The  monk 
standing  beside  him,  and  holding  one  side  of  the  book,  is  Lydgate.  The  earl 
of  Salisbury,  as  is  well  known,  died  in  the  prime  of  life,  slain  at  the  siege  of 
Orleans  in  1428,  only  two  years  after  the  date  of  this  portrait,  if  Stowe's 
memorandum  be  correct.  Lydgate  also  is  represented  as  a  man  in  the  vigour 
of  age,  as  we  might  suppose  him  to  be  at  that  date  from  all  that  we  can  collect 
relating  to  his  history.  But  the  history  of  Lydgate  is  very  obscure.  We  onlv 
know  that  he  was  a  native  of  the  town  from  which  he  took  his  name,  that  he 
was  in  his  youth  the  friend  of  Chaucer,  who  encouraged  him  in  the  cultivation 
of  poetry,  that  he  was  a  monk  of  Bury,  and  that,  like  Occleve,  he  was  patro- 
nized by  King  Henry  V.  The  date  of  his  birth  and  that  of  his  death  are 
equally  unknown.     In  a  poem  written  not  later  than  1446,  he  complains  of 


his  "  oolde  dayes,"  which  giving  to  his  expression  a  proper  latitude,  would 
ao-ree  very  well  with  the  age  represented  in  this  portrait  made  in  1426,  twenty 
years  before.  The  date  commonly  given  as  that  of  his  death,  1482,  is  quite 
inadmissible. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  so  little  should  be  known  of  a  man  who  enjoyed 
so  much  celebrity  in  his  own  time,  particularly  when  we  consider  that  he  was 
one  of  that  order  who  were  the  chief  recorders  of  historical  events  ;  and  it  is 
not  less  singular  that  one  who  wrote  such  an  immense  quantity  of  verse  should 
have  left  so  few  notices  of  his  own  life.  He  had  many  patrons,  at  whose 
command  most  of  his  larger  works  were  written,  and  who  appear  not  to  have 
been  backward  in  remunerating  his  labours.  In  the  collection  of  Lydgate's 
Minor  Poems,  published  by  Mr.  Halliwell,  there  is  a  very  amusing  petition  to 
the  Duke  of  Gloucester  for  money  '  on  account'  of  the  translation  of  Boccase 
which  he  was  then  writing  for  that  nobleman,  by  which  it  appears  that  the 
poet  was  poor. 

"    "  My  purse  and  I  be  callid  to  the  lure 

Of  indigence,  oure  stuff  leyde  in  morgage ; 
But  my  lorde  may  al  my  sorowe  recure, 
With  a  receyte  of  plate  and  of  coyngnage." 

And  in  one  of  the  concluding  stanzas  of  the  same  piece  he  complains  of  the 
two  evils,  age  and  poverty,  which  then  oppressed  him  :— 

"  O  sely  bille,  why  artow  nat  ashamed, 

So  maleapert  to  shew  out  thy  constraynt  ? 
But  povert  hath  so  nygh  thy  toune  atained, 

That  nihil  habet  is  cause  of  thy  compleynt. 
A  drye  tysik  makith  old  men  ful  feynt ; 

Rediest  way  to  renewe  theyr  corage 
Is  a  fressh  dragge,  of  no  spices  meynt, 

But  of  bright  plate  enprynted  with  coyngnage." 

In  a  poem,  in  the  same  collection,  where  he  professes  to  speak  of  himself, 
instead  of  giving  us  any  definite  information,  he  tells  us  of  his  idleness  in  his 
school-boy  days, — that  he  used  to  rob  gardens, — 

"  Ran  into  gardyns,  applys  ther  I  stal ; 
To  gad  re  frutys  sparyd  kegg  nor  wal ; 
To  plukke  grapys  in  othir  mennys  vynes, 
Was  moor  reedy  than  for  to  seyn  matynes ;" 

and  that  he  used  to  idle  his  time  in  playing  with  cherry-stones, 

"  Rediere  chirstoonys  for  to  telle, 

Then  gon  to  chirche  or  heere  the  sacry  belle." 


B  I  h 


I 


BIRTH  OF  ST.  EDMUND. 


VERY  prettily  illuminated  manuscript  of  the  fifteenth 

century,  in  the  British  Museum  (MS.  Harl.  No.  2278), 

containing  John  Lydgate's  English  metrical  life  of  St. 

Edmund,  king  of  the  East   Angles,  has  furnished^the 

subject  of  our  plate,  which  presents  some  interesting  details  of  the 

interior  arrangement  of  a  chamber  at  that  period,  as  well  as  good 

specimens  of  female  costume.    The  fire-place  is  particularly  curious, 

with  recesses  above  it  in  place  of  the  modern  chimney-piece. 

The  subject  of  this  engraving,  the  birth  of  St.  Edmund  the  Martyr, 
has  been  the  foundation  of  several  different  legends.  Accordino-  to  Lydgate's 
poem,  he  was  born  at  Nuremberg,  in  841.  His  parents  are  there  stated  to 
have  been  Alkmond  king  of  '  Saxonie,'  and  his  wife  Siware.  Alkmond  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  and  met  with  a  holy  widow  who  foretold  that  he  was 
about  to  become  the  father  of  a  saint.  He  was  received,  on  his  return  home, 
with  great  rejoicings. 

"  And  solemly  there  he  was  receyved, 

The  contre  glad  of  his  repeir  ageyn, 

And  after  soone  Siware  hath  conceyved, 

Thoruh  Goddis  grace,  that  werkith  never  in  veyn ; 

And  in  that  yeer  she  bar  a  child  certeyn, 

In  Norenberghes,  a  cite  of  gret  fame, 

Of  God  providid,  Edmond  was  his  name." 

A  much  more  curious  and  more  purely  English  legend,  relating  to  St. 
Edmund's  birth,  is  contained  in  an  early  English  poem  in  a  manuscript  at 
Cambridge  (printed  in  Mr.  Hartshorne's  Ancient  Metrical  Tales).  According 
to  this  story,  four  men  of  different  countries,  who  were  comino-  to  reside 
in  England,  met  together  "  by  a  fforest,"  where  "  a  cros  stood  in  a  strete," 
and  swore  perpetual  friendship  and  fellowship  ("they  swoor  hem  weddyd 
brethryn  for  ever  more").  One  of  these  "  weddyd  brethryn"  was  named 
Athelstane,  and  was  a  near  kinsman  of  the  English  king.  The  latter  died,  and 
Athelstane,  as  nearest  of  kin,  succeeded  him  on  the  throne.  He  immediately 
called  his  three  companions  before  him,  and  loaded  them  with  honours.  To 
two,  named  Wymound  and  Egeland,  he  gave  earldoms,  and  to  the  latter,  who 
was  his  especial  favourite,  he  gave  his  own  sister  Edith  in  marriage,  and  she 
bore  him  two  children.  The  third,  Alric,  he  made  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Wymound  became  jealous  of  Egeland ;  and,  with  the  design  of  supplanting 
him  in  the  royal  favour,  he  secretly  accused  him  of  harbouring  designs  upon 
the  king's  life,  in  order  that  he  might  succeed  to  him  by  right  of  his  wife. 


Under  a  pretence  of  wishing  to  confer  the  honour  of  knighthood  upon  his  two 
sons,  Athelstane  allures  the  earl  Egeland  and  his  family  to  court  (the  wife  of 
the  latter  being  already  far  advanced  in  pregnancy),  and  they  are  all  thrown 
into  prison  and  condemned  to  die.  The  king,  in  his  fury,  first  ill-treats  his 
queen,  who  had  expostulated  with  him,  and  then  deprives  of  his  archbishopric 
Alric,  who  had  come  to  beg  the  release  of  his  wedded  brother.  The  archbishop, 
in  return,  interdicts  the  land,  and  quits  the  court.  The  king,  however,  relents, 
and,  sending  for  him  back,  he  restores  him  to  his  dignities,  and  delivers  up  to 
him  the  imprisoned  earl  and  his  family.  Archbishop  Alric,  resolved  that 
justice  should  be  done,  judges  the  persons  accused  to  be  tried  by  the  ordeal 
of  hot  iron.  There  are  several  passages  in  this  poem  curiously  illustrative 
of  the  manners  of  our  forefathers,  but  none  more  so  than  the  description  of 
this  ceremony : — 

"  Whanne  the  bysschop  hadde  sayd  soo, 

A  gret  ftyr  was  made  ryght  thoo, 

In  Romans  as  we  rede  ; 

It  was  sett,  that  men  myghte  knawe, 

Nyne  plowgh  lengthe  on  rawe, 

As  red  as  any  glede. 
*  *  *  * 

"  They  fetten  forth  Sere  Egelan, 
A  trewer  eerl  was  ther  nan, 

Before  the  ffyr  so  bryght. 
From  hym  they  token  the  rede  scarlet, 
Bothe  hosyn  and  schoon,  that  weryn  hym  met, 

That  fel  al  ffor  a  knyght. 
Nyne  sythe  the  bvsschop  halewid  the  way, 
That  his  weddyd  brothir  scholde  goo  that  day, 

To  praye  God  for  the  ryght." 

The  innocence  of  Egeland  is  proved  by  his  passing  the  red-hot  plough- 
shares without  injury.  His  two  sons  and  his  countess  are  subjected  to  the 
same  trial,  and  similarly  escape  unhurt ;  but  the  lady  is  suddenly  seized  with 
the  pains  of  child-bnth,  and  is  delivered  of  a  son. 

"  And  whanne  this  chylde  i-born  was, 
It  was  brought  into  the  plas, 

And  was  bothe  hool  and  sound  : — 
Bothe  the  kyng  and  bysschop  ffree, 
They  crystynd  the  chyld,  that  men  myght  see, 

And  callyd  it  Edemound." 

The  traitor  Wymound  being  next  subjected  to  the  same  ceremony,  failed  in 
clearing  himself,  and,  after  confessing  his  guilt,  was  led  away  and  executed  ; 
and  the  poem  ends  with  a  pious  ejaculation — 

"  Now,  Jhesu,  that  is  hevene  kyng, 
Leve  never  traytours  have  better  endyng, 
But  swych  dome  ffor  to  dye !" 

Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  the  same  manuscript  which  furnished  the 
subject  for  the  plate. 


HENRY  I.  AND  KING  JOHN. 

N  one  of  the  Cottonian  manuscripts  (Julius,  E.  IV.),  a 
brief  metrical  chronicle  of  the  kings  of  England,  which 
has  been  attributed  to  John  Lidgate,  and  which  was 
composed  soon  after  the  10th  Hen.  VI.,  is  illustrated 
by  a  series  of  singular  and  bold  drawings  of  the  mo- 
narchs  whose  reigns  it  commemorates.  Two  of  these 
figures  are  given  on  the  accompanying  plate,  which 
were  intended  to  represent  Henry  the  First  and 
King  John.  The  costume  of  King  John  is  rather 
remarkable,  particularly  the  high  clogs  which  he  has 
on  his  feet. 
The  poem  which  these  figures  illustrate  is  curious,  and  appears  to  have 
been  very  popular,  by  the  numerous  copies  which  are  found  in  manuscripts 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  It  was  printed  by  Thomas  Hearne,  in  the  appendix 
to  his  edition  of  Robert  of  Gloucester.  An  extract  or  two  from  the  descrip- 
tions of  the  reigns  of  the  two  kings,  whose  figures  are  here  given,  will  convev 
to  the  general  reader  an  idea  of  its  style  and  character.  Of  King  Henry,  the 
writer  tells  us, — 

"  He  made  statute,  with  gode  rede, 

That  thevis  thrugh  hangynge  schuld  be  dede. 

Anothir  he  made  anon  right, 

That  money  makers  schuld  lese  hir  sight." 


The  characteristics  of  John's  reign  were  the  interdict  and  the  civil  war  : — 


"  In  Jonis  time,  as  I  undirstond, 
Was  interdited  alle  Engelond. 
He  was  fulle  wrothe  and  gryme, 
For  prestis  wuld  not  singe  bifor  him. 
*  *  *  * 

In  his  time  was  a  grete  dirthe, 

Xij.  pens  an  halfe-peny  lofe  was  wurthe. 

Thanne  he  made  a  parlement, 

And  swere  in  angre  verament 

That  he  wuld  make  such  a  sauwte. 

To  fede  all  Englond  with  a  spawde. 

A  monk  anon  therof  hirde, 

And  for  Englond  was  sore  aferde ; 

A  poysone  than  he  ordenyd  anone, 

So  was  he  poysoned,  and  deied  ryght  sone." 


The  elegant  reading  desk  at  the  end  of  the  present  article,  was,  about  the 
year  1750,  dragged  out  of  the  deep  part  of  the  lake  at  Newstead,  and  is 
now  preserved  in   the   collegiate   church   at   Southwell  in   Nottinghamshire, 


having  been  purchased  by  Sir  Richard  Kaye,  in  1778,  and  presented  by  his 
widow  to  the  chapter.  It  is  made  of  brass,  and  was  sent  by  them  to  a  clock- 
maker  to  be  cleaned,  who  observed  that  it  was  composed  of  several  pieces,  which 
mifht  be  taken  apart.  On  unscrewing  these,  the  boss  was  found  to  contain 
a  number  of  parchments,  most  of  which  were  deeds  and  grants  connected  with 
the  abbey  of  Newstead.  Among  the  rest,  was  a  pardon  granted  by  King 
Henry  V.  on  some  occasion  to  the  monks,  and,  as  was  common  with  such 
documents,  worded  so  generally  as  to  include  every  kind  of  offence  that  it 
was  probable  that  the  monks  might  be  accused  of  having  committed,  previous 
to  the  date  at  which  the  pardon  was  granted.  Such  deeds  were  often 
necessary  to  protect  the  monks  against  the  rapacity  or  malice  of  their 
neio-hbours.  Washington  Irving,  who  has  described  this  reading  desk  in  his 
little  volume  on  "  Abbotsford  and  Newstead  Abbey,"  has  entirely  misunder- 
stood the  nature  of  this  document,  and  represents  it  as  an  indulgence  to 
the  monks  to  commit  crimes  with  impunity.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that 
this  desk,  which  was  used  in  the  chapel  of  the  abbey  to  read  the  Litany  from, 
was  thrown  into  the  lake  by  the  monks,  probably  at  the  time  when  the 
dissolution  of  monasteries  was  first  threatened,  in  the  hope  that  by  this  means 
their  titles  would  be  preserved  until  the  storm  should  be  blown  over ;  and 
they  never  returning  to  recover  it,  it  had  remained  beneath  the  water  during 
more  than  two  centuries. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  copy  of  Jenson's 
Edition  of  Pliny,  1476,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Pickering.  The  specimen  of 
arras  is  from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum,  Harl.  4380. 


Idle  of 


■ 


MARGARET  QUEEN  OF  HENRY  VI.  AND 
HER  COURT. 


ONG  attachments  and  frequent 
visits  rendered  King  Henry  VI. 
and  his  queen  Margaret,  even 
in  the  midst  of  their  misfor- 
tunes, great  favourites  with,  the 
people  of  Coventry.  Their  me- 
mory is  still  preserved  there  in 
the  traditions  connected  with  the 
tapestry,  of  which  a  portion  is  represented  in  our  plate. 
It  is  placed  at  the  north  end  of  the  dining  hall  of  St. 
Mary's  Hall,  at  Coventry,  above  the  dais,  occupying  the 
space  beneath  the  windows,  and  is  thirty  feet  long  by  ten 
high.  A  compartment  in  the  middle,  now  much  defaced, 
appears  to  have  represented  the  Deity,  with  other  sacred 
objects.  To  the  left  of  this  are  seen  the  king,  with  his 
court,  occupied  in  prayer.  Over  their  heads  are  saints 
(their  patrons),  and  some  emblematical  figures. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  central  compartment  are  the 
queen,  with  the  ladies  of  her  court,  also  praying.  From 
the  similarity  of  the  king  to  other  portraits  of  him,  it  is 
believed  that  we  have  here  a  correct  portrait  of  Queen 
Margaret.  She  is  represented  as  a  tall  stately  woman, 
with  somewhat  of  a  masculine  face.  She  is  dressed  in  a 
rich  flowing  robe,  with  a  chain  of  gold  round  her  neck. 
The  lady  kneeling  behind  the  queen,  who  has  also  a  chain 
of  gold,  is  identified  by  tradition  with  the  Duchess  of 
Buckingham ;  but  we  cannot  place  much  confidence  in 
such  authority.  In  the  tapestry,  above  this  group  of  ladies, 
are  female  saints,  placed  similarly  to  the  saints  on  the  side 
of  the  king. 

St.  Mary's  Hall,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  buildings 
in  Coventry,  which  owes  its  foundation  to  some  of  those 
gilds  of  merchants,  which  here,  as  well  as  at  Chester,  are 
so  well  known  to  the  literary  antiquarian  by  the  mysteries 
and  miracle  plays  they  were  accustomed  to  perform  on 
their  festival  days,  was  itself  built  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  reign  of  Henry  VI.  Among  the  numerous  paintings 
in   its   windows,    and   the    architectural    ornaments    with 


which  it  is  profusely  decorated,  the  arms  and  figure  of  that  monarch  recur 
more  than  once. 

The  border  at  the  outside  of  the  foregoing  page  is  taken  from  the  Shrews- 
bury book ;  the  daisies,  of  which  it  is  composed,  being  a  conceit  upon  the 
queen's  name  of  Margaret  (marguerite). 

The  wood-cut  at  the  foot  of  the  present  page  is  taken  from  an  illumination 
in  a  fine  manuscript  in  the  British  Museum  (MS.  Harl.  No.  4372),  and 
represents  a  coach  of  the  middle  or  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  at 
which  time  probably'  this  manuscript  was  written.  It  contains  a  French  trans- 
lation of  Valerius  Maximus,  made  in  the  reign  of  Charles  V.  of  France,  and 
dedicated  to  that  monarch ;  but  the  compiler  of  the  Harleian  Catalogue  can 
hardly  be  correct  in  stating  that  the  MS.  itself  may  be  of  that  age.  The  kind 
of  carriage  here  represented,  very  similar  in  form  to  our  covered  waggons,  is 
frequently  found  in  MSS.  from  an  early  period  down  to  the  sixteenth  century. 
It  appears  to  be  covered  with  figured  silk,  supported  upon  brass  rods. 


KING  HENRY  VI.  AND  HIS  COURT. 


-;.     - 


aib.^m.^m.  ^ 


UR  plate  represents  a  part  of 
the  group  which  occupies  the 
left-hand  compartment  of  the 
tapestry  of  Coventry,  already 
described.  It  is  one  of  the 
many  illustrations  of  our  great 
dramatic  bard  which  we  are 
enabled  to  give  from  contem- 
porary pictures.  The  noble- 
man distinguished  by  his 
flowing  beard,  is  said  to  be  the  "  good  duke  Humphrey ;"  whilst  in  the 
person  kneeling  behind  the  king,  we  readily  recognise  his  uncle  and 
'  rival,  the  Cardinal  Beaufort.  The  tapestry  must  therefore,  have  been 
made  before  1447,  the  date  of  Duke  Humphrey's  death.  This  group 
has  a  peculiar  interest  for  the  reader  of  Shakespeare,  since  it  exhibits 
together  several  of  the  personages  who  figure  most  prominently  in  the 
Second  Part  of  King  Henry  VI.  Gloucester  presents  much  of  that 
character  which  is  so  vividly  painted  by  the  bard:  he  is  the  man  loved 
by  the  people,  and  respected  by  the  good  among  the  nobles : — 

"  The  common  people  favour  him, 

Calling  him, — Humphrey,  the  good  duke  of  Gloster  ; 
Clapping  their  hands,  and  crying  with  loud  voice — 
Jesu  maintain  your  royal  excellence  ! 
With — God  preserve  the  good  duke  Humphrey  !" 

We  can  hardly  contemplate  the  rival  nobles  of  Henry's  court  thus  assem- 
bled together  before  our  eyes, — the  parties  of  Beaufort  and  Gloucester 
occupying  their  places  in  the  same  court,  perhaps  but  a  few  months  before 
the  death  of  their  two  leaders, — Yorkists  and  Lancastrians  met  amicably 
under  the  same  roof  but  a  few  years  before  the  breaking  out  of  those 
bloody  civil  wars  which  carried  desolation  throughout  the  land, — without 
calling  to  mind  the  jealousies  which  were  at  this  period  rankling  in  their 
bosoms,  and  the  intrigues  in  which  they  were  already  engaged.  The 
words  of  the  Earl  of  Salisbury  present  themselves  forcibly  to  our  mind  : 

"  I  never  saw  but  Humphrey  duke  of  Gloster 

Did  bear  him  like  a  noble  gentleman. 

Oft  have  I  seen  the  haughty  cardinal — 

More  like  a  soldier,  than  a  man  o'th'  church, 

As  stout,  and  proud,  as  he  were  lord  of  all, — 

Swear  like  a  ruffian,  and  demean  himself 

Unlike  the  ruler  of  a  common-weal. 

— Warwick,  my  son,  the  comfort  of  my  age  ! 

Thy  deeds,  thy  plainness,  and  thy  housekeeping, 

Hath  won  the  greatest  favour  of  the  commons, 

Excepting  none  but  good  duke  Humphrey. 

— And,  brother  York,  thy  acts  in  Ireland, 

In  bringing  them  to  civil  discipline  ; 

Thy  late  exploits,  done  in  the  heart  of  France,  /^^t 

When  thou  wert  regent  for  our  sovereign, 


m 


■S;M. 


."i 


Have  made  thee  fear'd,  and  honour'd,  of  the  people  : — 

Join  we  together,  for  the  public  good  ; 

In  what  we  can  to  bridle  and  suppress 

The  pride  of  Suffolk,  and  the  cardinal, 

With  Somerset's  and  Buckingham's  ambition  ; 

And,  as  we  may,  cherish  duke  Humphrey's  deeds, 

"While  they  do  tend  the  profit  of  the  land." 

In  the  picture,  the  face  of  the  cardinal  is  sufficiently  characteristic  of  the 
ambitious  and  cunning  prelate,  pourtrayed  by  the  pen  of  the  poet. 

The  cut  on  the  preceding  page,  representing  a  herald  bearing  a  banner,  is 
taken  from  the  Shrewsbury  book*.  The  reading  desk  below  was  furnished 
by  a  MS.  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris. 

*  The  proper  blazon  of  the  banner  would  be,  if  seen  on  the  dexter  side, — Quarterly  :  1st  and  4th, 
Azure,  three  fleurs  de  lis  or,  France ;  2nd  and  3rd,  Gules,  three  lions  passant  guardant,  in  pale,  or, 
England;  being  the  arms  of  King  Henry  VI.:  impaling  those  of  his  queen,  Margaret  of  Anjou; 
namely,  Quarterly:  1st,  Barry  of  six,  argent  and  gules,  for  Hungary  ;  2nd,  Azure,  semee  de  lis  or,  a 
label  of  three  points  gules,  Naples ;  3rd,  Argent,  a  cross  crosslet,  between  four  plain  crosses  coupee, 
or,  Jerusalem ;  4th,  Azure,  semee  de  lis  or,  a  bordure  gules,  Anjou ;  5th,  Azure,  semee  of  cross 
crosslets,  fitchee,  two  barbels  hauricutand  addorsed,  or,  Barr;  6th,  Or,  on  a  bend  gules,  three  alerions 
argent,  Lorraine.     The  banner  is  fringed  with  the  colours  of  Queen  Margaret,  white,  green,  and  red. 

The  figure  which  grasps  the  staff  of  the  banner  bears  on  his  surcoat  the  arms  of  John  Talbot, 
the  first  earl  of  Shrewsbury,  and  of  his  alliances,  marshalled  in  a  very  unusual  manner :  being  his 
own,  impaling  those  of  the  mother  of  his  first  wife ;  both  being  surmounted  by  an  escutcheon, 
containing  the  arms  of  the  grandmother  of  his  second  wife: — Quarterly:  1st  and  4th,  Gules,  a  lion 
rampant,  within  a  bordure  engrailed,  or,  Talbot ;  2nd  and  3rd,  Argent,  two  lions  passant  gules, 
Strange.  These  impale  another  coat: — Quarterly  1st  and  4th,  Argent,  a  bend  between  six  martlets 
gules,  Furnival ;  2nd  and  3rd,  or,  a  fret  gules,  Verdon.  On  the  centre,  over  these  impaled  arms,  an 
escutcheon: — Quarterly,  1st  and  4th  gules,  a  lion  statant  guardant  argent,  crowned  or,  Lisle;  2nd 
and  3rd,  Argent,  a  chevron  gules,  Tyes. 


TALBOT,  EARL  OF  SHREWSBURY,  PRESENTING  HIS  BOOK 

TO  QUEEN  MARGARET. 


URING  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, few  gifts  were  more 
acceptable,  or  more  fre- 
quently offered  among 
princes  and  nobles  (for  they 
only  were  capable  of  giving 

such  expensive   articles),  than  a  richly  illumi- 
nated book.     The  Royal  MS.  15  E.  VI.  is  a  noble 

volume,  made  by  the  order  of  John  Talbot,  Earl 

of  Shrewsbury,  the  "  warlike  and  martial  Talbot" 

of  Shakespeare ;    and  was  presented  by  him  to 

the    celebrated   Margaret   of  Anjou,    after   her 

marriage  to  King  Henry  VI.  of  England.     At 

the  beginning  of  the  volume  is  a  superb  miniature, 

reproduced  in  the  adjoining  plate,  which  repre- 
sents Talbot,  dressed  in  the  robes  of  the  order  of 

the  Garter,  presenting  the  book  to  Queen  Mar- 
garet, who  is  seated  beside  the  king  her  husband. 

It  is  accompanied  by  a  dedication  in  French 

verse,  in  which  Talbot,  among  other  things,  says 

that  the  volume  was  made  for  her  instruction  and 

entertainment,  and  that  it  was  written  in  French, 

that,  "  after  she  had  learnt  English,  she  might 

not  forget  her  native  tongue." 

The  contents  of  this  volume  consist  chiefly  of 

the  Romances  of  "  Chivalrie "  which  were  then 

so  generally  popular.     The  first,  in  prose, 

recounts  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  and  his 

wonderful  adventures.     This  is  followed  by 

the  Metrical  Romances  of  Charlemagne,  of 

Ogier  of  Denmark,  of  King  Pontus,  of  Guy 

of  Warwick,  of  the  Knight  of  the  Swan,  &c. ;  after  which  we  have  some 

books  in  prose  of  a  somewhat  different  kind,  but  which  were  quite 

consonant  with  the  character  of  the  person  who  gave  the  volume — 

"  the  terror  of  the  French, 
The  scare-crow  that  affrights  our  children  so." 

These  books  are  the  Tree  of  Battles,  by  Honore  Bonnet ;  the  Book  of 
Politic,  written  by  "  frere  Gille  de  Romme ;"  an  inedited  Chronicle  of 


Normandy ;  the  Breviary  of  Nobles  (in  verse)  ;  the  "  Livre  des  faits  d' amies 
et  de  Chevalerie,"  by  Christine  de  Pisan ;  and  the  Statutes  of  the  Order  of 
the  Garter. 

The  banner  on  the  preceding  page,  bearing  the  arms  of  England  and 
France  quartered,  is  taken  from  the  manuscript  above  described,  popularly 
known  as  the  Shrewsbury  book ;  and  it  is  curious  on  account  of  the  variation 
in  the  well-known  motto,  which  is  here  written  Dieu  est  mon  droit  (God  is  my 
right),  instead  of  Dieu  et  mon  droit  (God  and  my  right).  The  cut  at  the 
head  of  the  present  page  is  also  taken  from  one  of  the  numerous  miniatures 
in  the  Shrewsbury  Book,  where  it  stands  at  the  beginning  of  the  Livre  des 
faits  d'armes,  a  work  on  the  rules  and  laws  of  war  which  was  printed  in  an 
English  dress  by  Caxton ;  it  represents  King  Henry  VI.  attended  in  court  by 
his  nobles,  delivering  to  the  gallant  Talbot  the  sword  which  he  knew  so  well 
how  to  use.  We  may  imagine  this  picture  to  be  an  illustration  of  the  scene  in 
Shakespeare  where  Talbot  delivers  his  sword  to  the  king — ■ 

"  I  have  a  while  given  truce  unto  my  wars, 

To  do  my  duty  to  my  sovereign  : 

In  sign  whereof  this  arm — that  hath  reclaim'd 

To  your  obedience  fifty  fortresses, 

Twelve  cities,  and  seven  walled  towns  of  strength, 

Besides  five  hundred  prisoners  of  esteem, — 

Lets  fall  his  sword  before  your  highness'  feet." 

And  we  can  then  fancy  the  king  answering,  as  he  returns  the  weapon — 

— "  Stand  up ;  and,  for  these  good  deserts, 
We  here  create  you  Earl  of  Shrewsbury; 
And  in  our  coronation  take  your  place." 


^ 


EFFIGY  OF  SIR  RICHARD  VERNON, 

TONG,  SHROPSHIRE. 


IWUU 


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FFIGIES,  the  most  interesting  of  the  features 
of  decoration  with  which  sepulchral  memorials 
were  enriched,  furnish,  during  a  period  com- 
prising upwards  of  four  centuries,  authorities 
and  illustrations  of  every  description  of  cos- 
tume ;  their  value  has,  perhaps,  scarcely  been 
appreciated,  even  at  a  time  like  the  present, 
when  it  is  no  longer  permitted  to  neglect  that 
truth  in  all  ornamental  accessories  which  so 
essentially  contributes  to  invest  with  the  charm 
of  reality  all  the  circumstances  of  history.  These  interesting  specimens 
of  sculpture  are  dispersed  throughout  the  country ;  they  are  often  ren- 
dered unattractive  by  wanton  mutilation,  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
fact  of  their  being,  as  far  as  the  skill  of  the  sculptor  enabled  him  to 
render  them,  actual  portraitures  of  the  deceased,  has  been  almost  over- 
looked ;  and  the  difficulty  of  making  the  comparison  of  various  specimens, 
wherein  consists  materially  the  interest  of  these  works,  of  which  no  two 
will  be  found  wholly  conformable,  has  been  a  cause  that  these  curious 
authorities  have  not  yet  been  made  sufficiently  available.  A  remarkable 
circumstance,  of  which  no  satisfactory  explanation  has  been  offered, 
may  be  observed  regarding  the  Effigies  of  the  best  period  of  monumental 
sculpture  ;  that  the  representation  was  almost  invariably  that  of  a  person 
in  full  vigour  of  life,  arrayed  in  all  the  splendour  of  such  accessories  of 
costume  as  befitted  his  estate,  the  effect  being  assisted  by  the  constant 
use  of  vivid  colouring,  and  the  gesture  frequently  being  that  of  action 
and  energy.  At  a  later  and  comparatively  debased  period,  the  un- 
sightly fashion  of  skeleton  or  shrouded  Effigies  occasionally  prevailed  ; 
but  from  the  times  of  the  earliest  introduction  of  Effigies  till  the  fifteenth 
century,  comprising  the  period  of  the  greatest  interest  and  perfection 
in  works  of  this  nature,  among  many  hundreds  of  sepulchral  figures 
that  are  scattered  throughout  Western  Europe,  a  single  instance  presents 
itself  in  which  the  representation  has  the  semblance  of  death.  Of  the 
numerous  Effigies  preserved  in  England,  few  possess  a  more  attractive 
character  than  the  memorial  that  has  furnished  the  subject  of  the  present 
plate:  it  is  sculptured  in  pure  alabaster,  and  having  suffered  little  injury, 
it  affords  an  interesting  exhibition  of  the  complete  array  of  the  heroes 
of  Agincourt.  The  church  of  Tong,  in  Shropshire,  contains  a  series 
of  curious  tombs  from  the  time  of  Richard  II.  to  that  of  Elizabeth, 
which  closes  with  a  fine  memorial  of  black    and   white    marble, 


inscribed,  as  tradition  affirms,  by  the  pen  of  Shakespeare.  The  choice  feature 
of  this  series  is  the  noble  monument  which  may  pretty  confidently  be  assigned 
to  Sir  Richard  Vernon,  who,  about  the  year  1410,  became  possessed  of  the 
castle  of  Tong,  in  consequence  of  the  alliance  of  his  ancestor  with  the  heiress 
of  Sir  Fulc  de  Penbrugge.  The  researches,  however,  of  genealogists  have 
not  succeeded  in  removing  all  the  uncertainty  in  which  the  history  of  this 
branch  of  the  house  of  Vernon  is  involved ;  and  the  numerous  armorial  deco- 
rations of  the  tomb  at  Tong  were  only  painted  on  the  alabaster,  and  are  too 
much  effaced  to  afford  any  evidence.  Sir  Richard  was  distinguished  in  the 
wars  of  Henry  V.,  and  the  post  of  treasurer  of  Calais,  at  that  time  a  position 
of  no  small  importance,  was  entrusted  to  him ;  he  was  chosen  Speaker  of  the 
Parliament  held  at  Leicester,  4  Hen.  VI.,  and  appears  to  have  died  in  1452. 
Esch.  30  Hen.  VI.  He  espoused,  as  it  seems,  his  cousin  Benedicta,  daughter 
of  William  Ludlowe,  and  her  effigy  reposes  by  his  side.  The  costume  of  this 
knightly  figure  displays,  in  a  striking  manner,  the  peculiarities  that  mark  the 
period,  when  defences  of  plate  were  almost  exclusively  employed,  mail  being 
only  occasionally  introduced  as  gussets  for  the  protection  of  the  joints,  where 
interstices  occurred  in  the  armour.  Around  the  basinet  appears  the  gorgeous 
orle,  enriched  with  chased  work  and  pearls,  which  rendered  it  but  ill  suited 
for  the  purpose  which  originally  it  seems  to  have  been  intended  to  answer,  in 
facilitating  the  wearing  of  the  ponderous  helm,  and  causing  it  to  rest  more 
steadily  on  the  basinet  over  which  it  was  worn.  The  helm  here  appears  under 
the  head  of  the  figure ;  it  is  decorated  with  crest  and  mantlings,  and  was  in- 
dispensable for  the  protection  of  the  face,  when  the  basinet  was  worn,  as  in 
tournaments,  without  a  visor.  The  camail  that  protected  the  neck  has  given 
place  to  the  gorgiere  of  plate,  which  for  greater  freedom  of  movement  is 
attached  on  either  side  to  the  basinet,  by  strong  rivets,  serving  as  hinges,  and 
the  lower  part  of  the  face  has  an  additional  defence  to  which  the  term  barbiere, 
or  barbet  piece  may  perhaps  properly  be  applied.  The  espaulieres  are  dissi- 
milar, the  lower  plate  on  the  right  side  being  cut  out  under  the  arm-pit,  to 
allow  the  free  use  of  the  lance.  The  cuirass,  which  is  strengthened  by  a 
demi-placate,  has  appended  to  it  a  skirt  of  taces,  around  which  is  girt  the 
splendid  cingulum  of  goldsmith's  work ;  on  the  ouch,  or  fastening,  appears 
a  figure  of  St.  George.  The  sword  is  attached  by  a  transverse  belt,  and 
its  scabbard  bears  the  sacred  monogram  IHS,  according  to  the  spirit  of  times, 
when  religious  feeling  was  inseparable  from  the  spirit  of  Chivalry.  Every 
plate  of  this  fine  armour  was  edged  with  a  band  of  gold,  and  enriched  partly 
with  borders  of  impressed  or  engraved  ornament ;  the  whole  is  chiselled 
with  such  care,  that  it  may  be  studied  with  almost  as  much  advantage  as  the 
actual  armour.  The  attire  of  the  lady  presents  the  usual  details  of  the  period  ; 
the  head-dress  has  been  selected  as  an  interesting  exhibition  of  the  rich  net- 
work of  gold  lace  set  with  chased  and  jewelled  ornaments,  termed  a  tresson, 
or  dorelot,  wherein  the  hair  was  enclosed,  and  from  the  arrangement  of  which, 
the  picturesque  head-dresses  of  this  period  assumed  a  great  variety  of  forms  ; 
its  use  is  still  retained  in  the  crespine,  which  is  part  of  the  attractive  costume 
of  many  parts  of  Italy.  At  the  back  of  the  head  appears  the  volet,  a  thin 
drapery  of  gauze,  which  now  alone  represented  the  more  decorous  veil  of 
previous  times. 


< 


1=3 


PROCLAMATION  OF  A  TOURNAMENT. 

N  all  nations  which  have  only  reached  a  certain 
condition  of  society,  the  amusements  of  peace  par- 
take at  least  of  the  forms  of  war.  The  nations  of 
antiquity,  and  the  German  tribes,  like  the  savages  of 
modern  times,  had  their  warlike  games  and  ceremo- 
nies. In  the  ages  of  chivalry,  these  games  took  a 
more  refined  and  more  splendid  form,  under  the 
name  of  Tournaments,  and  Justs,  which  appear  from 
their  names  to  have  been  first  introduced  in  France. 
Military  combats  of  this  kind  are  said  to  have  been 
practised  in  France  at  the  end  of  the  ninth  century, 
under  Louis  de  Germanie  and  his  brother  Charles, 
although  they  could  hardly  bear  the  name  of  tournaments  till  many  years 
afterwards.  The  laws  which  regulated  these  combats  were  compiled  a  few 
years  before  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century.  In  spite  of  all  the  efforts 
of  kings  and  churchmen  to  put  a  stop  to  them,  tournaments  continued  to  be 
popular  till  a  very  late  period.  As  early  as  the  twelfth  century,  our  kings 
made  vigorous  efforts  to  suppress  them  ;  for  they  were  attended  with  numerous 
and  serious  disorders,  were  frequently  the  commencement  of  family  feuds,  which 
were  not  appeased  till  much  blood  had  been  shed,  and  served  at  times  the 
purpose  of  seditious  meetings  at  which  the  turbulent  barons  assembled  to  con- 
spire against  the  king. 

Among  the  numerous  treatises  on  the  laws  and  customs  of  tournaments,  no 
one  is  more  interesting  than  the  Traite  des  Tournois  of  King  Rene.  This 
prince  was  born  in  1408,  and  became  duke  of  Anjou  in  1434.  Jeanne  II. 
queen  of  Naples,  declared  him  her  heir  in  1435,  but  he  was  driven  from  his 
new  kingdom  by  Alfonso  I.  King  of  Arragon,  who  had  previously  been  adopted 
by  the  same  queen.  After  several  fruitless  attempts  to  recover  this  inheritance, 
Rene  renounced  his  claims  to  the  crown  of  Naples  in  1473,  and  retired  to  his 
own  hereditary  dominions,  where  he  was  beloved  by  his  subjects.  He  died  at 
Aix  in  Provence,  in  1480.  Rene  was  distinguished  among  his  subjects  by 
the  title  of  The  Good.  He  was  a  great  patron  of  chivalry,  as  well  as  of 
literature  and  the  fine  arts,  in  all  which  he  himself  excelled.  His  court  was 
frequently  gratified  with  splendid  tournaments,  and  he  is  supposed  to  have 
composed  his  famous  Tra/'fe  about  the  year  1450.  Several  manuscripts  of 
this  work  are  preserved ;  but  the  one  from  which  our  plate  is  taken,  and 
which  is  now  in  the  Bibliotheque  du  Roi  at  Paris  (ancien  fonds,  No.  8352), 
was  Rene's  own  copy,  and  it  is  said  that  the  illuminations  were  drawn  by  his 
own  hand.  The  drawings  are  interesting  not  only  as  vivid  pictures  of  the 
manners  of  the  time,  but  as  valuable  specimens  of  heraldic  costume.* 


*   A  very  splendid  edition  of  this  work,  with  accurate  fac-sirailes  of  the  illuminations,  was  published 
at  Paris  in  1826,  in  a  large  folio  volume. 


The  celebration  of  a  tournament  was  preceded  and  accompanied  by  many 
acts  and  ceremonies,  which  were  exactly  denned  and  determined  by  a  regular 
code  of  laws.  It  was  announced  long  before  the  time  appointed  for  its  cele- 
bration, in  a  ceremonious  manner,  in  all  the  civilized  states  in  the  west  of 
Europe,  in  order  that  all  knights  who  stood  high  in  chivalric  fame,  might  have 
the  opportunity  of  attending.  In  King  Rene's  book  these  forms  and  ceremonies 
are  not  only  declared  in  writing,  but  they  are  represented  to  the  eye  by  a  series 
of  spirited  illustrations,  of  a  tournament  between  the  duke  of  Bourbon  and  the 
duke  of  Brittany.  Our  plate  represents  the  fifth  in  order  of  this  series  of 
drawings.  The  person  standing  on  a  block  between  the  two  poursuivants, 
is  the  King  of  Arms  of  the  Duke  of  Brittany.  On  the  present  occasion  he  has 
added  to  his  ordinary  costume  two  yards  of  gold  cloth  or  velvet,  in  the 
manner  of  a  small  mantle,  with  a  parchment  attached,  on  which  are  figured 
the  two  combatants  ready  for  the  fight.  His  two  poursuivants,  covered  with 
the  ermine  of  Bretany,  are  employed  in  proclaiming  the  Tournament  and  in 
distributing  to  those  knights  and  esquires  who  intend  to  take  a  part  in  the 
tournament,  the  shields  of  arms  of  the  four  juges-diseurs,  or  umpires  of  the 
field. 

The  cut  below,  representing  a  Royal  Marriage,  is  taken  from  a  splendidly 
illuminated  manuscript  life  of  St.  Catherine,  executed  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
which  formerly  belonged  to  the  library  of  the  dukes  of  Burgundy,  and  is  now 
in  the  Roval  Library  at  Paris. 


THE  LADY  OF  THE  TOURNAMENT  DELIVER- 
ING THE  PRIZE. 


URING  the  progress  of  the  Tournament, 
the  scaffolds  surrounding  the  field  were 
crowded  with  ladies,  who  encouraged  the 
comhatants  by  their  smiles.  They  not 
unfrequently  gave  to  some  favoured  knight 
a  glove  or  a  handkerchief,  which  he  was 
to  defend  against  the  field.  To  a  lady 
also  was  reserved  the  office  of  delivering 
the  prize  to  the  victor  in  the  Tournament 
each  day.  Our  engraving,  representing 
this  ceremony,  forms  the  last  of  the  series 

of  drawings  by  King  Rene.    In  the  Traite  des  Tournois,  we  have  especial 

directions  relating  to  this  part  of  the    day's   amusement.      When   the 

"juges-diseurs"  or  umpires  had  given  their  judgment,  the  king  of  arms 

announced  it  to  the  Knight  who  had 

been  decided  the  victor  in  the  day's 

contest,  and,  attended  by  the  heralds 

and  poursuivants,  conducted  him  to  the 

Lady  of  the  Tournament.     The  lady 

was  attended  by  two  damsels  of  her 

own  choice,  and  she  carried  the  prize 

carefully  covered.     When  the  victor 

in  the  tournament  was  brought  into 

her  presence,   she  uncovered  it  and 

delivered  it  to  him,  and  he  received 

it  graciously  and  kissed  the   giver ; 

and  this  was  not  all,  for  he  was  allowed 

"to  kiss  her  two  damsels  likewise,  if 

it  were  his  pleasure"  (et  semblablement 

les  deux  damoiselles  se  s'est  son  plai- 

sir).    Then  the  king  of  arms,  heralds, 

and  poursuivants  cried  aloud  in  the  hall 

that  the  prize  of  the  day  had  been 

adjudged  and  delivered.     After  this, 

the  Knight  led  the  Lady  to  the  dance 

as  his  partner  ;  and  the  judges,  knights 

of  honour,  king  of  arms,  and  poursui- 
vants, conducted  the  two  damsels  with 


all  ceremony  back  to  their  places.  The  rest  of  the  day  was  spent  in 
joyous  festivities. 

The  cut  at  the  bottom  of  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  contem- 
porary picture  of  Marie  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  daughter  of  Charles  the 
Bold,  and  married  in  1477  to  Maximilian  of  Austria.  At  this  time  she 
was  only  in  her  twentieth  year,  an  orphan,  and  engaged  in  a  cruel  war 
with  the  king  of  France,  who  had  forcibly  deprived  her  of  a  portion  of 
her  heritage.  The  life  of  this  innocent  princess  was  a  constant  series  of 
sorrows  and  misfortunes.  In  her  youth  she  was  persecuted  by  strangers, 
and  rudely  treated  by  her  own  subjects,  who  took  advantage  of  her  weak- 
ness. A  short  life,  filled  with  troubles,  was  ended  by  a  violent  death.  At 
the  beginning  of  February,  1482,  when  she  was  still  only  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  she  went  a  hawking.  While  engaged  in  this  recreation,  her 
horse  made  an  effort  to  leap  over  a  large  trunk  of  a  tree,  which  lay  on 
the  ground,  in  doing  which  the  girths  broke,  and,  the  saddle  turning 
round,  the  Duchess  was  thrown  with  considerable  force  against  the  trunk. 
She  was  carried  home  severely  wounded,  but  no  fears  were  entertained 
for  her  life.  It  is  said  however  that  from  feelings  of  modesty  she  would 
not  allow  the  physicians  to  take  proper  care  of  her  wounds,  which  became 
worse  and  worse,  till,  after  languishing  three  weeks,  she  died. 

Our  initial  letter  is  one  of  the  series  of  the  four  Evangelists,  from  an 
early  printed  book,  of  which  the  other  letters  are  also  given  in  the 
present  work. 


- 

I 


PORTRAIT  OF  PHILIP  THE  GOOD,  DUKE  OF 
BURGUNDY. 

ONTEMPORARY    writers    speak   in   glowing 
terms  of  the  power  and  magnificence,  the  great- 
ness and  magnanimity,  of  the  "good"  Philip  of 
Burgundy.     Born  in  1396,  he  was  long  famous 
as  the  ally  of  our  Henry  V.  in  his  French  wars, 
and  as  the  steady  partizan  of  the  English  inte- 
rests, till  the  bad  policy  of  Henry  VI.  drove  him 
to  join  the  opposite  party.     The  portrait  of  this  great  prince,  given 
in  the  accompanying  plate,  is  taken  from  a  MS.  in  the  Harleian 
collection   (No.   6199),   containing  the  laws  and  minutes  of  the 
celebrated  order  of  the  Toison  d'Or,  or  Golden  Fleece,  of  which 
he  was  the  founder,  and  first  sovereign.     According  to  the  legend, 
Philip  established  this  order  to  honour  the  golden  locks  of  one  of 
his  mistresses  ;  but  it  seems  more  probable  that  it  was  intended  to 
be  emblematical  of  the  staple  of  the  commerce  of  his  Dutch  and 
Flemish  subjects.     The  Harleian  MS.  is  a  very  valuable  historical 
document ;  it  contains  the  minutes  of  all  the  "  feasts  and  chapters" 
of  the  order  from  its  first  institution  at  the  town  of  Bruges,  Jan.  10, 
1429  (i.  e.  1429-30),  to  that  held  at  Bois-le-duc  in  Brabant,  in 
1481.     The  chapters  appear  to  have  been  held  always  at  towns 
within  the  "good"  duke's  dominions;    and  the  day  of  meeting, 
fixed  at  first  on  St.  Andrew's  day,  was,  in  1445,  changed  for  the 
convenience  of  the  knights  to  the  second  day  of  May.     The  names 
of  many  noble  persons  occur  in  these  minutes  ;  at  the  tenth  chapter, 
held  in  1440,  Charles,  Duke  of  Orleans  and  Valois,  was  elected  a 
knight;    at  the  fifteenth,  in  1445,  was  elected  Alfonso,   King  of 
Arragon ;  in  1461,  his  successor  John,  of  Arragon  and  Navarre. 
In  1467,  on  the  15th  of  June,  Philip  of  Burgundy  died  at  Bruges, 
and  his  son  Charles  succeeded  him  as  sovereign  of  the  order.     At 
the  same  chapter  in  which  the  new  sovereign  was  nominated,  on 
the  2nd  of  May,  1468,  Edward  IV.,  King  of  England,  was  elected 
a  knight.     Charles  of  Burgundy  died  in  1473,  and  was  succeeded 
as  chief  of  the  order  by  Maximilian,  Archduke  of  Austria.     The 
manuscript  contains  portraits  of  Charles  and  Maximilian. 

Philip  of  Burgundy  was  a  munificent  patron  of  literature  and  the 
arts ;  the  celebrated  collection  of  tales  by  the  Queen  of  Navarre, 


known  by  the  title  of  the  Cent  Nouvelles  Nouvelles,  was  written  at  his  court ; 
and  the  portrait  in  the  MS.  above-mentioned  was  probably  the  work  of  one  of 
the  artists  in  his  pay.  It  is  not  only  interesting  to  us  for  the  historical 
importance  of  the  person  whom  it  represents,  but,  as  being  a  contemporary 
portrait  of  one  of  the  characters  who  appear  in  two  of  Shakespeare's  historical 
dramas,  it  is  a  valuable  illustration  of  the  great  bard.  It  is  difficult  to  fix  the 
exact  date  at  which  it  was  made  ;  a  note  at  the  beginning  of  the  book  shows 
that  it  was  written  some  years  after  the  election  of  the  King  of  Arragon  at 
Ghent  in  1445  ;  and  if  we  take  as  a  middle  date  between  this  and  the  last 
chapter  recorded  in  it  (1481),  the  year  1460  for  that  of  the  portrait,  we  shall 
not  perhaps  be  far  wrong. 

The  ornament  and  initial  on  the  preceding  page,  are  copies  of  a  bold  wood- 
cut in  an  edition  of  the  Biblia  Moralis  of  Peter  Berchorius,  printed  in  folio  at 
Ulm,  in  1474.  The  ship  at  the  foot  of  this  page  is  taken  from  one  of  the 
Illuminations  of  the  Shrewsbury  Book  (written  in  a.  d.  1445). 


A  KNIGHT  OF  THE  GARTER. 


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E  the  various  Orders  of  Knighthood  which 
originated  in  the  chivalrous  feelings  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  few  have  continued  to  hold 
so  high  a  rank  as  that  of  the  Garter, 
founded  originally  by.  one  of  the  most  war- 
like of  the  English  monarchs,  and  num- 
bering among  its  members  the  greatest 
names  which  have  figured  in  history  during 
several  centuries.  Mr.  Beltz,  in  his  valu- 
able "  Memorials  of  the  Order  of  the 
Garter,"  appears  to  have  established  on 
substantial  grounds  the  fact,  that  the  Order 
of  the  Garter  was  founded  by  King  Edward  III.  in  the  year  1344,  on  the 
occasion  of  solemn  festivities  held  by  that  monarch  in  the  castle  of 
Windsor.  The  popular  story,  by  which  the  adoption  of  so  singular  an 
emblem  as  a  blue  garter  has  been  commonly  explained,  namely,  that  at 
a  ball  given  by  that  monarch,  the  fair  countess  of  Salisbury,  to  whom  he 
was  paying  his  addresses,  had  dropped  her  garter  on  the  floor,  and  that 
the  monarch  took  it  up  and  offered  it  to  her,  observing,  in  answer  to 
the  smiles  of  his  courtiers  and  in  the  language  then  used,  Honi  soit  qui 
mal  y  pense  (the  expression  which  has  since  been  adopted  as  the  device 
of  the  order),  appears  to  have  no  good  support  in  history.  Many  things 
combine  to  render  it  at  least  extremely  improbable.  Various  theories  have 
been  started,  and  many  incidents  seized  upon,  to  take  the  place  of  the  one  just 
mentioned,  but  with  no  very  apparent  success ;  and  it  would  be  perhaps  a 
vain  labour  to  attempt  to  find  reasons  for  what  may  have  been  little  more  than 
the  caprice  of  the  moment.  Mr.  Beltz,  who  has  treated  the  subject  with  much 
industry  and  good  judgment,  is  inclined  to  adopt  the  opinion,  "  that  the  garter 
may  have  been  intended  as  an  emblem  of  the  tie  or  union  of  warlike  qualities 
to  be  employed  in  the  assertion  of  the  Founder's  claim  to  the  French  crown ; 
and  the  motto  as  a  retort  of  shame  and  defiance  upon  him  who  should  think  ill 
of  the  enterprise,  or  of  those  whom  the  king  had  chosen  to  be  the  instruments 
of  its  accomplishment.  The  taste  of  that  age  for  allegorical  conceits,  im- 
presses, and  devices,  may  reasonably  warrant  such  a  conclusion."  It  may  be 
observed,  that  among  the  first  members  of  the  order  were  the  Black  Prince  and 


many  of  the  heroes  of  the  French  wars.  The  patron  of  the  order  was  St. 
George,  as  heing  also  the  patron  of  England.  In  another  part  of  the  present 
work  we  have  an  illumination  representing  the  principal  sovereigns  of  Europe, 
as  Knights  of  the  Garter,  bowing  before  the  altar  of  that  saint. 

The  acconrpanving  plate  represents  the  dress  of  a  Knight  of  the  Garter 
about  the  time  of  Edward  IV.  or  Richard  III.,  and  is  taken  from  a  paper 
manuscript  of  that  date  in  the  possession  of  Thomas  Williment,  Esq.  This 
manuscript  appears  to  have  been  written  in  England,  for  a  Pole  or  Russian, 
and  on  one  of  its  leaves  is  the  inscription,  Vincislai  et  amicorum ;  it  contains  a 
treatise  on  heraldry,  and  a  copy  of  that  set  of  the  statutes  of  the  order  which 
stands  as  second  among  those  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  Ashmole's  large 
work  on  this  subject.  Since  the  first  foundation  of  the  order,  various  slight 
alterations  have  been  made  in  the  costume ;  in  the  first  instance  it  consisted 
of  a  mantle  of  woollen  cloth  ( the  staple  manufacture  of  this  country),  of  a  blue 
ground,  lined  with  scarlet  cloth ;  the  garters  of  blue  cloth  or  silk,  embroidered 
with  gold,  having  on  them  the  motto  of  the  order  in  letters  of  gold,  and  the 
buckles,  bars,  and  pendants  of  silver  gilt ;  of  a  surcoat,  also  of  woollen  cloth, 
narrower  and  shorter  than  the  mantle,  and  fastened  to  the  body  by  a  girdle 
the  colour  to  be  changed  every  year  ;  and  of  a  hood  made  of  the  same  materials 
as  the  surcoat. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  fine  early  printed 
edition  of  the  Commentary  of  Thomas  d' Aquinas  on  the  Gospels  ;  it  is  hardlv 
necessary  to  say,  that  the  figure  within  the  letter  represents  one  of  the 
Evangelists. 

The  wood-cut  below  represents  a  case  for  a  book,  of  leather,  of  the  loth 
century,  purchased  at  Venice,  by  the  Honourable  Robert  Curzon,  junior. 


TOBIT. 

FINE  manuscript  of  the  French  translation,  hy 
Guiart  de  Moulins,  of  the  Historia  Scolastica  of 
Peter  Comestor,  has  furnished  the  subject  of  the 
accompanying  plate.  It  was  intended  to  repre- 
sent a  scene  in  the  history  of  Tobit,  who  is 
reclining  on  the  couch,  blind  and  sick,  and  has  just 
dispatched  his  son  Tobias  to  the  city  of  Rages. 
In  the  MS.  there  is  another  compartment  which 
represents  young  Tobias  going  out  of  his  father's 
house,  to  his  guide,  the  angel  Raphael,  who  is  properly  booted  for  the  journey, 
but  is  distinguished  from  his  companion  by  his  wings.  The  lady,  who  is 
cooking,  was  no  doubt  intended  to  represent  Tobit's  wife  Anna.  The 
picture  itself  is  a  good  representation  of  the  interior  of  a  room  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  hanging  behind  the  couch  seems  to  serve  the  purpose  of  a 
window-curtain.  The  species  of  jack  on  which  the  cooking  utensil  is  sus- 
pended is  frequently  met  with  in  the  illuminations  of  old  manuscripts.  The 
buffet,  with  its  cups  and  pitchers,  is  not  a  part  of  the  original  design ;  but  has 
been  introduced  from  another  illumination  in  the  same  volume,  representing 
the  feast  of  Balthazar,  when  he  beheld  the  portentous  writing  on  the  wall. 

The  manuscripts  of  the  work  to  which  this  picture  forms  an  illumination, 
are  very  numerous,  and  generally  embellished  with  pictures.  This  manu- 
script, which  is  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library  in  the  British  Museum 
(15.  D.  I.),  is  a  very  large  volume  in  folio,  containing  only  a  part  of  the  book, 
the  other  volume  not  being  there,  and  was  written  in  the  year  1470  (in  the 
reign  of  Edward  IV.  of  England).  At  the  end  is  subscribed  in  the  hand 
which  executed  the  whole  of  the  volume,  "  escript  par  moy,  Du  Ries." 

Peter  Comestor,  as  he  is  styled  in  Latin,  his  real  name  having  been  either 
Mangeur  or  Mangeard,  was  a  native  of  Troyes  in  Champagne,  and  was  long, 
as  chancellor  of  the  university  of  Paris,  famous  for  his  learning  and  eloquence. 
He  died  in  1179,  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Victor,  where  he  was  buried.  His 
epitaph  in  Latin  verse,  which  was  visible  on  his  tomb  before  the  destruction  of 
religious  monuments  which  accompanied  the  great  revolution,  is  a  singular 
specimen  of  the  taste  of  the  age  in  which  it  was  composed. 

"  Petrus  eram  quem  petra  tegit ;  dictusque  Comestor 
Nunc  comedor.     Vivus  docui,  nee  cesso  docere 
Mortuus,  ut  dicat  qui  me  videt  incineratum, 
Quod  sumus  iste  fuit,  erimus  quandoque  quod  iste." 

Peter  Comestor  compiled  a  paraphrase  of  the  bible  history,  which  in  after 
ages  became  more  popular,  and  was  more  generally  read,  than  the  bible  itself. 


This  work  was.  translated  into  French  somewhat  more  than  a  century  after  it 
was  originally  composed,  by  Guiart  des  Moulins,  who  informs  us  in  his  preface 
that  he  was  born  in  1251 ;  that  he  began  the  translation  in  12(J1,  the  year  in 
which  he  was  made  a  canon  of  St.  Peter's  at  Aire  ;  that  he  finished  the  book 
in  January,  1294  ;  and  that  in  1297,  perhaps  partly  as  a  reward  for  his  literary 
labours,  he  was  made  dean  of  the  same  church.  The  popularity  of  Guiart  des 
Moulins'  work  was  very  great  :  and  manuscripts  of  it  are  found  in  most 
collections.  It  was  revived  in  the  fifteenth  century  by  Jean  de  Rely,  by  order 
of  Charles  VIII.,  and  printed  in  folio  about  149<>,  at  Paris,  by  Antoine 
Verard. 

The  figures  on  the  present  page,  representing  a  mirror  and  a  clock,  are 
taken  from  a  MS.  of  the  Romance  of  Renaud  of  Montauban,  painted  in  the 
fifteenth  century  by  John  of  Bruges,  and  now  preserved  in  the  Library  of  the 
Arsenal  at  Paris,  (No.  244). 


OLD  AGE  AND  POVERTY. 

JRING  near  three  centuries,  scarcely  any  single 
literary  production  (if  we  except  the  English  poem 
of  Piers  Ploughman)  enjoyed  so  great  a  popularity 
as  the  French  poem  called  the  Romance  of  the 
Rose.  This  famous  Romance,  which  represents 
in  an  extravagant  kind  of  allegory  the  perils  and 
hurts  which  the  lover  encounters  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  object  (a  kind  of  Gothic  ars  amandi),  was 
begun  by  a  French  poet  named  Guillaume  de  Lorris,  who  died  about  the  year 
1200  ;  and  it  was  continued  by -Jean  de  Meun,  a  man  of  rank  and  fortune,  as 
well  as  a  poet  of  high  reputation,  who  finished  it  about  a.  d.  1305.  Very 
little  is  known  of  the  personal  history  of  either  of  these  writers.  Their  work 
frequently  transgresses  all  our  notions  of  delicacy  ;  but  this  was  not  its 
greatest  fault  in  the  age  when  it  was  most  read :  it  is  filled  with  bitter  satire 
against  the  monks,  and  even  contains  some  notions  on  politics  which  are  more 
liberal  than  were  then  likely  to  be  agreeable  to  everybody.  The  consequence 
was,  that  the  book  was  at  times  persecuted ;  and  one  of  the  great  pillars  of 
the  church  said,  that  he  would  no  more  condescend  to  pray  for  the  soul  of  its 
author,  than  he  would  for  that  of  Judas  who  betrayed  Christ.  This  poem  is 
still  interesting  as  a  singularly  curious  monument  of  the  literature  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  It  was  translated  partly  by  Chaucer,  of  whose  version  only  a 
portion  is  preserved,  the  part  which  was  most  objectionable  in  those  days,  and 
least  in  ours  ;  for  we  have  the  political  satire,  and  the  indelicacies  are  lost,  if 
they  were  ever  translated. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  point  out  any  miniature  more  beautiful  than  the 
illuminations  which  enrich  the  splendid  copy  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  in  MS. 
Harl.  No.  4425,  executed  about  a.  d.  1480.  The  two  given  on  the  accom- 
panying plate  may  be  considered  as  elegant  illustrations  of  Chaucer,  from 
whose  translation  we  quote  rather  than  from  the  French  original.  The  lover, 
falling  asleep  in  the  "  merry  month  of  May,"  dreams  that  he  arises  early  and 
quits  the  town  for  the  country, — 

"  The  sound  of  birdes  for  to  heare, 
That  ou  the  buskes  singen  cleare." 

At  length  he  arrives  at  a  fair  garden,  enclosed  by  a  strong  wall,  on  the 
exterior  of  which  are  painted  in  compartments,  the  principal  passions  and 
troubles  of  life,  Hate,  Covetousness,  Sorrow,  Envy,  &c.  Among  the  rest, 
appeared  Old  Age, — 

"  That  shorter  was  a  foot,  i-wis, 
Than  she  was  wont  in  her  yonghede. 


A  foule  for-welked  thing  was  she, 

That  whilom  round  and  soft  had  be ; 

Her  heeres  shoken  fast  withall, 

As  from  her  head  they  would  fall ; 

Her  face  frounced  and  for-pined, 

And  both  her  honds  lorne  for-dwined. 

So  old  she  was,  that  she  ne  went 

A  foot,  but  it  were  by  potent."    (i.  e.  with  a  staff). 

Last  of  all,  and  apart  from  the  rest,  was  the  figure  of  Poverty  : — 

"  She  ne  had  on  but  a  straite  old  sacke, 
And  many  a  cloute  on  it  there  stacke ; 
This  was  her  cote,  and  her  mantele, 
No  more  was  there  never  a  dele 
To  cloath  her  with  ;  I  undertake, 
Great  leaser  had  she  to  quake. 
And  she  was  put,  that  I  of  talke, 
Ferre  fro  these  other,  up  in  an  halke  ; 
There  lurked  and  there  coured  she, 
For  poore  thyng,  where  so  it  be, 
Is  shamefast  and  dispised  aie. 
Accursed  may  well  be  that  daie, 
That  poore  man  conceived  is  ! " 

Our  initial  letter  D,  not  inappropriate  in  its  design  to  the  suhject  of  gardens 
and  roses,  is  taken  from  a  copy  of  the  Offices  of  the  Virgin,  among  Douce's 
MSS.  at  Oxford,  of  the  latter  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  elegant  little 
fountain  at  the  foot  of  this  page,  forms  one  of  the  embellishments  of  a  fine  MS. 
of  the  reign  of  Edward  V.  (MS.  Reg.  15,  E.  iv.) 


4f3- 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  THE  ROSE. 

WE  have  already  given  an  account  of  this  curious  literary 
production,  and  a  brief  analysis  of  the  commencement. 
The  plot  of  the  romance,  or  allegory,  is  very  uninteresting.  After 
having  admired  the  pictures  on  the  wall  already  mentioned,  the 
dreamer  finds  the  gate,  which  is  opened  to  him  by  Idleness,  the 
gate-keeper,  and  he  enters  a  beautiful  garden.  Courtesy  introduces 
the  visitor  to  Pleasure,  the  proprietor  of  the  garden,  who  was  in  the 
midst  of  his  court.  While  the  stranger  is  contemplating  the  beauty 
of  the  ladies  in  the  court  of  Pleasure,  he  is  pursued  by  Love,  who 
is  armed  with  five  arrows.  The  fugitive  arrives  at  a  fountain, 
beholds  a  beautiful  rose-tree,  and  is  seized  with  the  desire  of 
gathering  a  rose  ;  at  the  same  moment  he  becomes  an  easy  conquest 
to  his  pursuer.  The  rest  of  the  poem  is  employed  in  relating  the 
troubles  and  disappointments  which  the  Lover,  for  such  it  appears 
is  the  name  of  the  dreamer,  experiences  in  his  attempts  to  obtain 
the  rose,  on  which  he  has  set  his  desires.  In  the  course  of  these 
attempts,  one  of  his  rudest  opponents  is  Danger,  and  his  most 
powerful  opponent  is  Reason.  A  very  large  portion  of  the  poem 
is  taken  up  with  the  discourses  of  the  latter.  Bel  Acueil,  the  ally 
and  friend  of  the  adventurous  lover,  is  seized  and  imprisoned  in  a 
tower  by  Jealousy  ;  but  both  are  befriended  by  Love  and  his  mother 
Venus,  the  tower  is  stormed,  and  the  Lover  finally  succeeds  in  his 
object. 

Three  of  the  figures  here  represented  are  taken  from  the  magni- 
ficent manuscript  of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose  already  described. 
The  figure  in  a  riding  dress  was  furnished  by  another  manuscript 
of  the  same  age  (MS.  Reg.  19,  C.  VIII). 

Three  of  these  figures  afford  singularly  curious  examples  of  the 
costume  of  the  dandies  of  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
One  of  them  is  in  his  riding  dress :  the  other  two  are  decked  out 
in  the  court  dress  of  the  period.     The  robe  with  its 

"  Sleeves  blazing  like  unto  a  cranes  winges." 

(as  they  are  characterized  by  a  contemporary  satirist),  reminds  us 
of  the  form  preserved  in  the  gowns  which  are  still  worn  in  the 
universities.  The  different  articles  of  a  man's  apparel,  as  indicated 
in  books  of  this  time,  are  a  shirt  (often  bordered  with  rich  lace), 
'breech,'   a  petticoat,   a  doublet,  a  long  coat,   a  stomacher,  hose, 


socks,  and  shoes.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  articles  of  dress  of  a  gallant  of 
this  period,  was  the  large  plumed  hat,  which,  as  here  represented,  was  gene- 
rally slouched  on  one  side,  so  as  to  expose  to  view  part  of  an  under  cap  of 
embroidered  velvet  or  gold  net-work.  The  second  figure  on  our  plate  carries 
his  plumed  hat  in  his  hand,  behind  him,  while  he  has  a  small  cap  of  another 
description  perched  on  the  top  of  his  head.  In  some  illuminations,  the  gallant, 
still  having  this  little  cap  on  his  head,  carries  the  plumed  hat  slung  over  his 
shoulders  by  means  of  a  cord ;  just  in  the  same  manner  as  the  boys  at  the 
present  day,  in  many  charity  schools,  are  made  to  hang  their  hats  round  their 
necks  with  a  string.  This  was  done  probably  more  for  convenience  than 
ornament.  The  hair  at  this  period  was  worn  very  long;  and  it  was  the 
fashion  to  wear  shoes  which  were  very  broad  in  front. 

The  wood-cut  at  the  foot  of  this  page,  is  a  very  fine  representation  of  an 
organ,  taken  from  a  painting  of  St.  Cecilia,  by  Lucas  Van  Leyden. 


MINSTRELS. 


UR  engraving  is  taken  from  the  celebrated  manuscript 
of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose  in  the  Harleian  Library 
in  the  British  Museum,  where  the  subject  forms  part  of 
a  much  larger  illumination,  representing  the  '  karole' 
or  dance  of  "Sire  Mirthe,"  (in  the  French  original, 
Deduit). 


"  These  folke,  of  whiche  I  tell  you  so, 
Upon  a  karole  wenten  tho  ; 
A  ladie  karoled  hem,  that  night 


Gladness  the  blisfull  and  the  light. 
Well  could  she  sing-  and  lustily, 
None  halfe  so  well  and  semily." 


The  dance  was  attended  by  minstrels  and  '  jogelours.'  — 


"  Tho  mightist  thou  karollis  sene, 
And  folke  daunce,  and  merie  ben, 
And  make  many  a  faire  tourning 
Upon  the  grene  grasse  springing. 
There  mightist  thou  se  these  flutours, 
Minstrallis,  and  eke  jogelours, 
That  well  to  singen  did  ther  paine ; 
Some»songen  songis  of  Loraine, 
For  in  Loraine  ther  notis  be 
Full  swetir  than  in  this  contre. 
There  was  many  a  timbestere, 
And  sailours,  that  I  dare  well  swere 
Y-couthe  ther  craft  full  parfitly, 
The  timbris  up  full  subtilly 
Thei  casten,  and  hent  them  full  oft 
Upon  a  fingir  faire  and  soft, 


That  thei  ne  failid  nevir  mo. 
Full  fetis  damosellis  two, 
Right  yong,  and  full  of  semelyhede, 
In  kirtils,  and  none  othir  wede, 
And  faire  y-tressid  every  tresse, 
Had  Mirthe  y-doen  for  his  noblesse 
Amidde  the  carole  for  to  daunce, 
But  hereof  lieth  no  remembraunce 
How  that  thei  daunsid  queintily; 
That  one  would  come  all  privily 
Agen  that  othre,  and  whan  thei  were 
Togithre  almoste,  thei  threwe  i-fare 
Ther  mouthis  so,  that  through  ther  plaie 
It  semid  as  thei  kist  alwaie." 

Chaucer,  Romaunt  of  the  Rose. 


The  above  lines  afford  us  an  exact  description  of  the  class  of  persons  who 
attended  festivals  and  ceremonies  to  afford  entertainment  to  the  company. 
The  minstrel  sang  or  repeated  romances  and  tales,  or  other  poetry.  The 
jogelours  performed  different  feats  of  skill,  such  as  throwing  pieces  of  wood 
into  the  air,  and  catching  them  on  their  fingers.  The  two  '  damsels'  remind 
us  strongly  of  the  dancing  girls  of  the  Orientals ;  the  custom  was  perhaps 
brought  from  the  east  by  the  crusaders. 

The  minstrel,  in  the  earlier  ages  of  society,  was  a  very  important  member 
of  the  community.  With  him  was  deposited  the  whole  body  of  the  national 
literature,  the  poetry  which  celebrated  the  ancient  gods  and  heroes  of  the 
people,  and  which  he  sang  to  the  harp  at  their  entertainments.  At  this  early 
period  we  hear  of  no  other  instrument ;  and  the  poetry  itself  was  not  com- 
mitted to  writing,  but  merely  handed  by  memory  from  one  generation  to 
another.  With  the  advance  of  civilization  and  refinement,  the  character  of 
the  minstrel  underwent  a  gradual  change,  and  the  subjects  which  he  sang,  as 


well  as  the  instruments  on  which  he  played,  became  multiplied.  In  Anglo- 
Saxon  manuscripts  we  have  figures  of  many  different  kinds  of  musical  instru- 
ments, some  of  them  of  a  complicated  description.  Under  the  Anglo-Normans, 
his  duties  became  still  more  varied  ;  we  have  had  occasion  in  another  place 
to  point  out  the  part  which  he  acted  at  feasts  and  rejoicings.  At  this  period 
the  personal  character  of  the  minstrels  began  to  be  degraded  :  they  were  men 
of  low  dissipated  habits,  ready  to  stoop  to  every  kind  of  licence  and  buffoonery, 
and  often  regarded  as  little  better  than  the  outcasts  of  society.  livery  noble- 
man or  great  gentleman  had  his  troop  of  minstrels  and  jogelours,  who  ranked 
among  his  menial  servants.  There  were  others  who  lived  independent,  and  who 
wandered  about  attending  tournaments,  marriages,  and  other  great  ceremonies, 
where  they  were  always  welcomed,  received  their  share  of  the  good  cheer,  and 
were  dismissed  with  gifts  of  different  kinds.  There  were  still  some  minstrels 
of  a  higher  class,  who  composed  the  poetry  which  they  sang.  Already  in  the 
thirteenth  century  the  minstrels  begin  to  complain  of  the  little  encouragement 
shown  to  them  by  the  great ;  and  their  character  gradually  declined,  until, 
though  at  a  much  later  period,  they  sunk  into  the  undignified  position  of 
ballad-singers,  who  wandered  about  the  streets,  and  visited  village  fairs. 

At  the  period  when  Chaucer  wrote,  the  minstrels,  though  considerably 
removed  from  their  ancient  position,  had  not  yet  reached  this  final  state 
of  degradation.  They  were  still  welcome  to  the  halls  of  princes  and  barons, 
and  were  necessary  to  the  celebration  of  all  great  festive  ceremonies.  They 
were  always  feasted  with  the  best  cheer,  and  rewarded  with  gifts  of  robes  and 
other  articles,  and  even  with  money.  In  the  rolls  and  registers  of  the  private 
expenditure  of  the  princes  and  great  families  during  that  century,  and  even  in 
the  following,  we  find  frequent  entries  of  payments  to  the  minstrels  who  attended 
their  feasts.  In  the  illumination  before  us  they  are  not  accompanied  with 
the  jogelours  and  "  timbesteres"  mentioned  in  the  text.  Indeed  these  per- 
formers are  not  often  introduced  in  drawings  such  as  this,  where  it  was  an 
object  with  the  artist  not  to  crowd  together  more  figures  than  necessary  ;  but 
we  find  figures  of  jogelours  of  all  kinds  drawn  separately  in  the  margins  of 
some  missals  and  other  manuscripts.  The  minstrels  are  here  handsomely  clad 
in  party-coloured  garments,  according  to  the  manner  of  the  time,  and  employ 
different  kinds  of  instruments.  The  first  has  a  harp  ;  the  second  is  perform- 
ing on  the  flute  (the  kind  now  called  the  English-flute)  ;  the  third  is  equipped 
with  a  pipe  and  tabour. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  MS.  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  fifteenth  century. 


QUEEN  MARGARET  OF  SCOTLAND. 

FROM  A  PAINTING  AT  HAMPTON  COURT. 

ONTEMPORARY  writers  have  recorded  few  incidents 
of  the  private  life  of  the  princess  whose  portrait  forms 
the  subject  of  our  engraving :  hut  they  are  unanimous  in 
representing  her  as  an  amiable  and  virtuous  woman. 
Margaret  was  the  daughter  of  Christiern  I.  King  of  Den- 
mark :  she  was  married  to  James  III.  King  of  Scotland 
in  14G9,  when  she  had  scarcely  completed  her  sixteenth 
year.  By  this  marriage,  the  crown  of  Scotland  became 
possessed  of  the  Orkney  and  Shetland  Islands,  which  had  belonged  to  Denmark 
during  six  centuries,  and  which  were  now  given  as  Margaret's  dower. 

In  marrying  the  King  of  Scotland,  Margaret  became  the  queen  of  a  country 
which  was  already  distracted  with  civil  dissensions.  When  James  returned 
from  Denmark  with  his  bride,  the  first  intelligence  which  reached  him  on"  his 
approach  to  the  Scottish  shores,  was  of  plots  and  conspiracies  :  and  after  a 
troubled  reign,  he  was  murdered  on  the  18th  of  June,  1488,  when  he  was 
flying  from  the  field  of  battle  in  which  his  army  had  been  defeated  by  that 
of  his  rebellious  subjects,  and  had  taken  shelter  in  a  peasant's  cottage.  His 
queen  died  two  years  before  him,  in  148G.  She  is  said  to  have  been  neglected 
by  her  husband  ;  and  her  early  death  was  probably  caused  as  much  by  domestic 
afflictions,  as  by  anxiety  at  the  troubles  of  James's  reign.  The  old  writers 
praise  her  for  her  great  beauty  and  piety. 

The  painting  from  which  our  picture  is  taken,  is  now  preserved  at  Hampton 
Court.  It  was  formerly  in  the  palace  at  Kensington.  It  is  believed  to  have 
been  executed  between  the  years  1482  and  1484;  and  consists  of  three  com- 
partments. From  its  appearance  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  intended  for  an 
altar  piece :  and  was  perhaps,  as  has  been  conjectured,  painted  for  the  royal 
chapel  at  Stirling,  founded  with  great  magnificence  by  king  James  III.  Our 
engraving  represents  the  second  compartment  only.  The  queen  has  a  singu- 
larly rich  head-dress,  loaded  with  gold,  precious  stones,  and  pearls.  Her  coat 
is  of  cloth  of  gold.  She  is  attended  by  a  saint,  supposed  to  be  Canute,  the 
patron  saint  of  Denmark,  and  it  has  been  imagined  that  his  features  may  be 
intended  to  represent  those  of  her  royal  father  Christiern.  On  the  table  or 
altar,  before  which  she  is  kneeling,  are  seen  the  arms  of  Denmark  and  Scot- 
land. 

The  first  division  of  the  original  picture  represents  her  husband,  King  James 
III.,  similarly  kneeling,  with  their  young  son  (afterwards  King  James  IV.  i. 
and  St.  Andrew,  the  patron  of  Scotland. 


Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  the  splendidly  illuminated  missal,  formerly 
at  Strawberry  Hill,  which  has  furnished  another  initial  to  the  present  work. 
The  effigy  below,  representing  Lady  Vernon,  is  described  in  our  article 
on  her  husband,  Sir  Richard  Vernon,  where  this  figure  was  unavoidably 
omitted. 


' 


MARGARET  QUEEN  OF  JAMES  III.  OF  SCOTLAND. 

[HALF-LENGTH  PORTRAIT.] 


I N  C  E  the  thirteenth  century,  an 
abundance  of  ingenuity  had  been  ex- 
hausted in  contriving  a  variety  of 
fashions  in  ladies'  head-dresses ;  which 
were  at  times  carried  to  a  wonderful 
extravagance.  The  variations  appear 
to  have  alternated  between  raising  the 
head  high  in  the  air,  or  stretching  it 
out  sideways.  The  first  fashion,  when 
confined  within  measure,  had  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  low  hat :  but  it  was 
often  raised  so  high,  as  to  take  the 
form  of  a  steeple,  or  spire,  and  then  a 
long  crape  was  thrown  over  it,  which 
hung  down  to  the  ground.  We  have 
a  specimen  of  this  costume  in  the  figure  of  Marie  of  Burgundy,  given  in  the 
present  work.  To  hinder  them  from  dragging  on  the  ground,  the  ladies  in 
walking  carried  the  end  of  the  crapes  over  their  arms.  Sometimes  they  wore 
two  of  these  towers,  each  being  from  half  to  three  quarters  of  a  yard  long, 
which,  with  the  crapes  or  kerchiefs,  had  the  appearance  of  two  wings,  and 


satirical  people  in  mockery  called  them  butterflies.  These  fashions  bore  some 
resemblance  to  the  modern  costume  of  Normandy.  The  simplest  form  of  the 
other  system  alluded  to  consisted  in  the  hair  being  swelled  out  into  the  form 
of  a  caul  on  each  side  of  the  head,  which  was  richly  cased  in  network  of  gold 
and  covered  with  jewels.  At  times  this  was  carried  out  sideways  to  a  great 
length,  and  formed  into  the  shape  of  a  barrel :  at  others,  instead  of  being  carried 
out  horizontally,  it  was  raised  upwards,  and  this  fashion,  when  carried  to  an 
extravagant  point,  bore  an  exact  resemblance  to  two  horns.  These  fashions 
appear  to  have  been  perpetually  changing — each  going  out  for  a  short  period 
and  then  returning — and  sometimes  all  used  contemporaneously,  so  that  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  fix  any  exact  period  for  each.  In  spite  of  the  assertions 
of  many  writers  to  the  contrary,  the  allusions  in  the  poets  and  other  popular 
writers  prove  that  the  horned  head-dresses  were  in  use  in  the  thirteenth  and 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  centuries.  They  were  again  an  object  of  bitter 
satire  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  and  during  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
fifteenth. 

The  head-dress  of  Queen  Margaret,  whose  portrait  is  here  given  on  a  larger 
scale  to  show  the  details  of  the  ornaments,  is  extremely  elegant ;  but,  although 
certainly  not  far  distant  from  the  period  at  which  all  the  shapes  above 
mentioned  were  worn  in  the  greatest  extravagance,  it  partakes  of  none  of  the 
extremes.  As  specimens  of  head-dresses  about  half  a  century  earlier  we  give 
on  the  preceding  page  the  figure  of  Isabella  of  Bavaria  Queen  of  France,  from 
a  drawing  in  the  collection  of  Gaigneres,  in  the  Bibliotheque  du  Roi,  Paris. 

Isabella  was  the  daughter  of  Stephen  II.  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  Count  Palatine, 
and  was  born  in  1371.  Her  mother  was  one  of  the  Visconti  of  Milan.  At 
the  early  age  of  fourteen,  Isabella  was  married  in  1385  to  Charles  VI.  King 
of  France,  who  had  just  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  his  father.  Beautiful  in 
person,  and  proud  in  her  high  position  and  powerful  family  connexions,  she  first 
brought  into  France  the  extravagant  love  of  finery  which,  combined  with  her  own 
profligacy,  brought  so  many  misfortunes  on  her  adopted  country.  Her  criminal 
connexion  with  the  duke  of  Orleans  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
long  sustained  his  party  in  power,  against  the  opposite  party  of  the  duke  of 
Burgundy.  From  that  time  the  disputes  between  these  two  families  began  to 
tear  in  pieces  the  country,  and  pave  the  way  for  the  English  invaders.  In 
1417,  two  years  after  the  battle  of  Agincourt,  a  term  was  put  to  her  irre- 
gularities by  the  Dauphin,  who  had  been  entrusted  with  the  government  of  the 
kingdom,  and  she  was  imprisoned  at  Tours.  She  immediately  joined  her 
former  enemies,  the  Bourguignons  and  the  English  party,  and  Jean  sans  Peur 
duke  of  Burgundy  restored  her  to  liberty :  a  new  civil  war  followed,  more 
cruel  than  those  which  had  preceded ;  and  Paris  was  depopulated  by  horrible 
massacres.  Her  daughter  was  by  her  means  married  to  Henry  V.  of  England, 
and  carried  to  the  English  monarchs  new  claims  to  the  crown  of  France.  At 
length  Isabella  became  an  object  of  contempt  to  all  parties ;  she  died  on  the 
30th  of  September,  1435,  neglected  by  all,  and  she  was  buried  in  the  church 
of  Notre  Dame,  with  scarcely  an  attendant  to  mourn  over  her. 
Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  MS.  Burney,  No.  292. 


MASQUE  OF  CHARLES  VI.  OF  FRANCE. 


N  the  accompanying  plate  is  represented  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  of  the  numerous  masquerades  which  cha- 
racterized the  reign  of  the  unhappy  lunatic  Charles 
VI.  of  France. 

In  13(J3,  the  queen  married  one  of  her  ladies  of 
honour,  who  was  a  widow.  In  that  age  it  was 
customary  to  celebrate  the  marriage  of  widows  with 
the  most  riotous  and  extravagant  mirth ;  every  one 
who  was  present  at  the  festivities  was  allowed  to  do 
or  say  what  he  liked  with  the  most  unbounded  freedom ;  and  the  weak  king 
and  his  bad  favourites  determined  to  make  this  an  occasion  for  exceeding 
even  the  licentiousness  usual  on  such  occasions.  One  of  the  king's  favourite 
counsellors  in  his  pleasures,  a  wicked  man  named  Hugh  de  Guisay,  contrived 
a  new  mode  of  putting  in  effect  their  design ;  at  his  suggestion  the  king  and 
five  of  his  knights  (Hugh  de  Guisay  being  himself  one),  equipped  themselves 
as  satyrs,  sowed  up  in  vests  of  linen  which  fitted  tightly  the  whole  of  their 
bodies,  and  which  was  covered  externally  with  a  coating  of  rosin  and  pitch, 
on  which  tow  was  attached  so  as  to  make  them  look  hairy  like  goats.  On 
their  heads  they  placed  hideous  masks. 

When  the  ladies  of  the  court,  and  the  new  married  pair,  with  their  friends, 
were  celebrating  their  nuptials  in  the  royal  palace  of  St.  Paul,  in  the  night  of 
the  29th  of  January  in  the  year  above  mentioned,  the  king  and  his  five  knights, 
thus  disguised,  rushed  into  the  hall,  howling  like  wolves,  dancing  and  leaping 
about  in  the  most  extravagant  style,  and  exhibiting  a  thousand  uncouth  and 
unbecoming  gestures.  In  the  midst  of  the  confusion  which  they  thus  created, 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  (the  king's  brother)  and  the  Comte  de  Bar,  who  had 
been  passing  the  evening  elsewhere,  arrived,  and,  thinking  to  heighten  the 
merriment  and  frighten  the  ladies,  they  set  fire  to  the  hairy  covering  of  some 
of  the  masquers.  The  pitch  and  rosin  immediately  caught  the  flame,  and  the 
satyrs  became  in  a  few  seconds  so  many  blazing  fires.  As  the  dresses  had 
been  sowed  close  to  their  bodies,  it  was  impossible  to  deliver  themselves 
from  them,  and  the  five  knights,  like  living  masses  of  fire,  threw  off  their 
masks,  and  ran  from  one  side  of  the  hall  to  the  other,  in  the  most  excruciating 
torments,  and  uttering  the  most  terrible  cries. 

At  the  moment  when  this  disaster  took  place,  it  happened  that  the  king  was 
apart  from  his  companions,  running  after  the  young  duchess  of  Berry ;  who, 
when  she  saw  what  had  happened,  held  him  fast  and  covered  him  with  her 
robe,  so  that  no  spark  could  fall  upon  him,  and  he  was  thus  saved.  The  queen 
and  most  of  the  other  ladies  fled  in  the  utmost  terror  to  a  more  distant  part  of 
the  house.     One  of  the  knights  with  more  presence  of  mind  than  his  com- 


panions,  rushed  into  the  kitchen  and  threw  himself  into  a  large  tuh  full  of 
water,  and  thus  saved  himself.  The  other  knights  burnt  during  about  half  an 
hour  ;  one  of  them  died  on  the  spot ;  two  died  on  the  second  day  ;  and  Hugh 
de  Guisay,  the  contriver  of  this  unfortunate  masque,  outlived  it  three  days 
in  extreme  torments.  The  king,  though  he  escaped  the  fate  of  his  fellow 
masquers,  was  thrown  by  the  fright  into  a  long  fit  of  madness. 

Hugh  de  Guisay  was  a  proud  overbearing  man,  cruel  and  tyrannical  in  the 
extreme,  and  on  that  account  an  object  of  general  detestation :  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  treating  the  poor  commoners,  and  his  own  servants,  in  the  most  brutal 
manner,  beating  them  like  dogs,  throwing  them  down  and  kicking  them  with 
his  spurs,  and  forcing  them  to  bark.  His  death  created  a  general  feeling  of 
joy,  and  as  his  funeral  procession  passed  the  street,  the  populace  saluted  the 
body  with  the  words  he  had  so  often  used  to  others,  "bark,  dog !" 

Our  plate  is  taken  from  a  finely  illuminated  MS.  of  Froissart,  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum,  MS.  Reg.  18  E,  II.  of  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  It  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  historical  compositions  of  that  period, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  very  interesting  illustration  of  costume.  The  ladies 
wear  the  "  chimneys"  on  their  heads  which  excited  so  much  the  indignation 
of  the  puritanical  preachers  of  that  age,  who  complained  that  "  the  younger 
and  more  beautiful  the  ladies  were,  the  higher  were  the  chimneys  which  they 
carried," — et  encore  grant  abus  est,  que  tant  que  plus  belles  et  jeunes  elles 
sont,  plus  haultes  cheminees  elles  ont.  (Pierre  des  Gros,  le  Jardin  des  Nobles). 
The  fire-place,  with  the  tutelary  saint  and  the  candle  before  him,  as  well  as 
the  chandelier  and  other  articles  of  furniture  which  adorn  the  apartment,  are 
deserving  of  notice.  The  designer  has  brought  the  tub  of  water  out  of  the 
kitchen  into  the  room  where  the  masquers  were  diverting  themselves,  in 
order  to  represent  this  part  of  the  story,  a  kind  of  licence  which  was  frequently 
taken  by  the  painters  who  executed  the  illuminations  of  these  old  manuscripts. 
It  will  also  be  observed  that  he  has  introduced  only  four  satyrs  besides  the 
king,  instead  of  five. 

Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  a  printed  book  of  the  latter  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  British  Museum. 


THE    CAKTERB 


THE  CANTERBURY  PILGRIMAGE. 


FINE  manuscript  of  Lydgate's  "  Storie  of  Thebes,1' 
preserved  in  the  British  Museum  (MS.  Reg.  18  D. 
II.)  has  furnished  the  accompanying  beautiful  illus- 
tration of  the  prologue  to  the  Canterbury  Tales. 
The  poet  of  Bury,  as  is  well  known,  composed  the 
Storie  of  Thebes  as  an  addition  to  the  Tales  of 
Chaucer.  In  the  introductory  lines  he  pretends  that 
after  a  fit  of  sickness  he  determined  to  make  a  pil- 
grimage to  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  at  Canterbury,  and  that  there  he  chanced 
to  go  to  the  same  inn  which  harboured  mine  host  of  the  Tabard  and  his  com- 
pany.    Lydgate  describes  himself  as  being  clad — 


"  In  a  cope  of  black,  and  not  of  grene, 
On  a  palfray,  slender,  long,  and  lene, 
With  rusty  bridle,  made  not  for  the  sale, 
My  man  to-forne  with  a  void  male." 

The  host  of  the  Tabard  receives  him  into  the  company,  and  jokes  with  him 
upon  his  lean  appearance  : — 

"  To  be  a  mounke  sclendire  is  youre  koyse ; 
Ye  have  bene  seke  I  dar  myne  hede  assure, 
Ore  late  fed  in  a  feynte  pasture. 
Lifft  up  your  hede,  be  glade,  take  no  sorowe, 
And  ve  shale  home  ryde  with  us  to-morowe." 


On  their  road,  the  poet  is  obliged  to  conform  to  the  rule,  and  tell  his  tale, 
which  is  the  tragedy  of  Thebes. 

The  history  of  Thebes,  with  that  of  Troy,  the  wanderings  of  Eneas,  and 
the  conquests  of  Alexander,  were  the  four  '  stories'  of  Antiquity  which  figure 
most  among  the  Middle- Age  Romances.  The  first  three  were  considered  as 
members  of  the  same  cycle, — the  prologue  to  an  old  MS.  in  French  of  the 
story  of  Thebes  describes  it  as,  "  li  roumans  de  Tiebes  qui  fu  ratine  de  Troie 
la  grant."  It  appeared  early  in  French  verse  ;  at  a  later  period,  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  it  was  given  in  French  prose  in  a  book  which  was  long 
popular,  and  of  which  the  manuscripts  are  often  richly  illuminated.  John 
Lydgate  appears  to  have  been  the  first,  perhaps  the  only  one,  who  translated 
it  into  English.  His  poem,  which  is  printed  in  some  of  the  old  folio  editions 
of  Chaucer,  is  in  many  parts  a  favourable  specimen  of  the  talents  of  its  author. 
The  poetry  of  Lydgate  has  hitherto  found  few  readers  in  modern  times  ;  but 
it  will  be  made  more  generally  known  by  the  recent  publication  of  his  Minor 
Poems  by  Mr.  Halliwell.  He  was  the  immediate  successor  of  Chaucer,  though 
far  inferior  to  him  in  poetic  talent. 

The  manuscript  of  Lydgate's  Storie  of  Thebes  from  which  we  have  taken 
our  picture,  appears  to  have  been  written  towards  the  latter  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  illuminations  were  perhaps  executed  by  a  Flemish  artist,  who 
has  not  thought  it  necessary  to  follow  very  closely  the  description  of  the 
pilgrims  as  given  by  Chaucer ;  nor  can  we  suppose  that  the  portly  and  well 
mounted  monk  who  appears  to  be  telling  his  story  is  identical  with  the  "sclen- 
dire"  form  of  dan  Lydgate.  It  is  not  clear  whether  the  rider  on  the  right,  or 
the  one  who  carries  a  spear,  is  intended  to  represent  the  knight ; — were  it  not 
that  his  horse  seems  too  richly  caparisoned,  and  himself  deficient  in  some  of 
the  characteristics  mentioned  in  Chaucer,  we  might  have  taken  him  for  the 
squire's  yeoman,  who  carried — 

— "  by  his  side  a  swerd  and  a  bokeler, 
And  on  that  other  side  a  gaie  dagger©, 
Harneised  wel,  and  sharpe  as  point  of  spere." 
Cant.  Tales,  v.  112. 

Of  course  the  picture  includes  but  a  small  portion  of  the  number  of  the 
pilgrims. 

The  illumination  is  itself  a  beautiful  specimen  of  art  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  monastic  buildings,  with  the  houses  before  them,  and  the  walled  city, 
are  very  interesting  illustrations  of  ancient  times.  It  will  be  observed  that  the 
city  is  enclosed  by  two  lines  of  fortifications :  the  first  enclose  the  buildings ; 
and  between  it  and  the  second  is  enclosed  an  open  space  for  the  reception  of 
the  army  of  defence,  and  of  the  cattle,  &c.  from  the  surrounding  country,  in 
cases  of  invasion.     The  outer  wall  is  not  surrounded  by  a  ditch. 

The  wood-cut  at  the  foot  of  the  preceding  page  represents  a  very  elegant 
Reliquary  of  the  fifteenth  century  :  the  original  is  still  preserved  at  Paris. 


a 

■ 

RICHARD  DE  BEAUCHAMP,  EARL  OF  WARWICK, 

RICHARD  NEVIL,  EARL  OF  SALISBURY, 

AND  KING  RICHARD  III. 

FROM  THE  WARWICK  ROLL. 


ARWICK  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  towns 
to  the  antiquary  of  any  in  England,  being 
connected  in  many  ways  with  the  legendary 
romance,  as  well  as  with  the  history,  of  our 
forefathers.  In  the  fifteenth  century  this 
place  gave  birth  to  John  Rouse,  one  of  the 
oldest  of  our  English  writers  who  applied 
himself  to  the  study  of  what  are  popularly 
considered  as  antiquarian  subjects.  He  was  educated  at  Baliol  Col- 
lege, Oxford;  and  was  afterwards  chantry-priest  in  the  chapel  at 
Guy-Cliff,  founded  by  Richard  de  Beauchamp,  earl  of  Warwick  (men- 
tioned below),  and  said  to  have  been  the  place  of  retirement  of  the 
famous  Guy,  earl  of  Warwick.  John  Rouse  left  many  manuscripts  and  draw- 
ings, some  of  which  (particularly  a  series  of  illustrations  of  the  Life  of  Richard 
de  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick,)  are  preserved  in  the  British  Museum.  His 
most  interesting  work  is  preserved  in  the  College  of  Arms,  and  is  commons- 
known  by  the  name  of  the  Warwick  Roll,  or  the  Rouse  Roll ;  it  is  a  pedigree 
of  the  earls  of  Warwick,  on  a  long  roll  of  vellum,  with  drawings  of  the  prin- 
cipal members  of  the  different  families  mentioned  in  it.  From  these  figures, 
singularly  curious  as  illustrations  of  costume,  of  which  some  of  the  later  ones 
are  no  doubt  intended  to  be  portraits ;  we  have  selected  six,  which  are  given 
on  the  present  plate  and  on  the  one  which  follows. 

The  first  figure  on  the  present  plate  represents  Richard  de  Beauchamp, 
who  succeeded  his  father  in  the  earldom  of  Warwick  in  1401,  and  was  distin- 
guished by  his  military  deeds  during  the  reigns  of  Henry  IV.  and  Henry  V. 
On  the  death  of  the  latter  monarch,  the  earl  was,  by  his  will,  appointed 
governor  to  his  infant  son  and  successor,  Henry  VI.  This  circumstance 
appears  to  be  indicated  in  the  picture  by  the  royal  child,  which  he  carries  on 
his  right  arm.     In  his  left  hand  he  carries  the  model  of  the  chapel,  adjoining 


the  collegiate  church  of  St.  Mary,  at  Warwick,  which  he  had  erected,  and  in 
which  he  was  interred. 

The  second  figure  in  our  plate  represents  Richard  Nevill,  who  became  earl 
of  Salisbury  in  1442,  in  right  of  his  wife,  Alicia,  daughter  and  heir  of  Thomas 
Montacute,  earl  of  Salisbury,  and  was,  by  her  father,  of  the  famous  "  king- 
maker," Richard  Nevill,  earl  of  Warwick  and  Salisbury,  who  fell  at  Barnet 
Field.  The  earl  of  Salisbury  was  a  zealous  Yorkist,  and  fought  in  the  first 
battle  of  St.  Albans,  and  in  the  subsequent  engagements  at  Blore  Heath, 
Northampton,  and  Wakefield.  In  the  latter  battle,  the  Yorkists  being  de- 
feated, he  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  other  party,  and  was  immediately  beheaded, 
and  his  head  was  fixed  upon  a  pole  over  one  of  the  gates  of  the  city  of  York. 

The  third  figure  represents  King  Richard  III.,  in  whose  reign  the  roll 
was  composed.  It  is  in  all  probability  a  correct'  portrait  of  that  monarch, 
who  was  well  known  to  John  Rouse.  He  has  evidently  given  him  the 
inequality  of  shoulders,  which  he  attributes  to  him  in  his  History  of  England.* 
It  is  Rouse  who  has  preserved  the  stories  on  which  so  much  of  the  interest  of 
Shakespeare's  drama  rests ;  such  as  that  of  the  birth  of  Richard  with  teeth 
and  long  hair,  his  murder  of  Henry  VI.,  &c. 

At  the  feet  of  each  of  the  persons  on  this  roll,  is  represented  the  animal 
which  was  the  adopted  badge  of  the  family  to  which  he  belonged.  The  badge 
of  the  earls  of  Warwick  was  a  muzzled  bear ;  the  bull  was  the  badge  of  Clare 
and  of  Clarence,  and  the  eagle,  the  badge  of  Monthermer.  The  badge  of 
King  Richard,  as  is  well  known,  was  a  boar ;  and  the  reader  will  readily 
call  to  mind  the  popular  distich  which  was  made  to  ridicule  that  king  and  his 
three  counsellors, — 

"The  Rat,  the  Cat,  and  Lovell  that  dog, 
Rule  all  England  under  the  hog." 

Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  a  MS.  of  the  fifteenth  century,  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum,  MS.  Arundel,  No.  104.  The  knife  at  the  foot  of  the 
preceding  page,  which  appears  by  the  workmanship  to  have  been  made  early 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  is  in  the  collection  of  the  Louvre,  at  Paris.  It  is 
twelve  inches  long,  including  the  blade  and  handle. 

*  The  following  is  Rouse's  brief  description  of  Richard's  personal  appearance  :  "  Parvse  staturse 
erat,  curtam  habens  faciem,  inaequales  humeros,  dexter  superior  sinisterque  inferior."  J.  Rossi, 
Antiquarii  Warwicensis,  Historia  regum  Angliae,  ed.  Hearne,  p.  216. 


•J.-. 


ISABELLA,  WIFE  OF  WILLIAM  DE  BEAUCHAMP,  ANNE, 

QUEEN  OF  RICHARD  III.,  AND  HENRY  DE 

BEAUCHAMP,  DUKE  OF  WARWICK. 

FROM  THE  WARWICK  ROLL. 


UR  present  plate  is  also  taken  from  the  Warwick 
Roll,  in  the  College  of  Arms.  Of  the  two  ladies, 
the  first  is  Isabella,  daughter  of  William  Mauduit, 
lord  of  Hanslape,  and  sister  and  heir  of  William 
Mauduit,  earl  of  Warwick.  She  married  William 
de  Beauchamp,  lord  of  Elmeley,  and  their  son, 
William  de  Beauchamp,  became  (by  inheritance 
through  his  mother)  the  first  earl  of  Warwick  of 
the  family  of  Beauchamp.  She  was  foundress  of 
the  nunnery  of  Cokehill,  and  retired  to  that  reli- 
gious house  in  her  latter  days. 

The  figure  to  the  right  represents  Henry  de  Beauchamp,  the  last  male  heir 
of  that  family  as  earl  of  Warwick,  who  was  created  duke  of  Warwick  by  King 
Henry  VI.  He  had  previously  obtained  the  privilege  for  himself  and  his 
heirs  male,  of  wearing  a  golden  coronet  about  his  head,  in  the  presence  of  the 
king  and  elsewhere.  This  circumstance  appears  to  be  indicated  in  the  picture. 
The  duke  died  in  the  year  1445,  and  the  title  of  earl  of  Warwick  (that  of 
duke  being  extinct  by  his  death)  was  carried  by  a  female  heir  to  the  Nevills. 

The  lady  in  the  middle  of  the  picture  is  Anne,  second  daughter  of  the 
"  king  maker,"  Richard  Nevill,  earl  of  Warwick,  the  "  Lady  Anne,"  of 
Shakspeare.  She  was  first  married  to  Prince  Edward,  son  of  Henry  VI., 
who  was  murdered  after  the  battle  of  Tewkesbury ;  and  she  was  joined  in 
second  marriage  to  the  duke  of  Gloucester,  (afterwards  Richard  III.)  the 
murderer  of  her  former  husband. 


"  When  I  look'd  on  Richard's  face, 
This  was  my  wish, — Be  thou,  quoth  I,  accurs'd, 
For  making  me,  so  young,  so  old  a  widow  ! 
And  when  thou  wed'st,  let  sorrow  haunt  thy  bed  : 
And  be  thy  wife  (if  any  be  so  mad) 


More  miserable  by  the  life  of  tliee, 

Than  thou  hast  made  me  by  my  dear  lord's  death  ! 

Lo,  ere  I  can  repeat  this  curse  again, 

Even  in  so  short  a  space,  my  woman's  heart 

Grossly  grew  captive  to  his  honey  words, 

And  proved  the  subject  of  mine  own  soul's  curse  : 

Which  ever  since  hath  held  mine  eyes  from  rest ; 

For  never  yet  one  hour  in  his  bed 

Did  I  enjoy  the  golden  dew  of  sleep, 

But  with  his  timorous  dreams  was  still  awak'd. 

Besides,  he  hates  me  for  my  father  Warwick ; 

And  will,  no,  doubt,  shortly  be  rid  of  me." 

Shakespeare,  King  Richard  III.  Act  iv.  Sc.  1 . 

The  figure  of  the  duke  of  Warwick  is  important,  as  furnishing,  with  those 
given  on  the  preceding  plate,  a  valuable  example  of  the  armour  of  that  period. 
It  was  particularly  distinguished  by  the  form  of  the  elbow-pieces,  which  were 
sometimes  fantastic  in  shape,  and  very  elaborately  ornamented.  The  head- 
dress of  the  ladies,  such  as  that  borne  in  our  picture  by  the  Lady  Anne,  was 
peculiar  to  the  short  reign  of  Richard  III.  The  hair  was  confined  in  a  cap 
or  caul  of  gold  net  or  embroidered  stuffs,  projecting  horizontally  from  the 
back  of  the  head  to  a  considerable  distance,  and  covered  by  a  kerchief  of  fine 
texture,  stiffened  out  in  the  form  of  a  pair  of  butterfly's  wings. 

The  animal  at  the  feet  of  one  of  the  ladies  appears  to  be  a  griffon,  the  badge 
of  the  family  of  Despencer.  With  the  other  two  figures  we  have  again  the 
bear,  the  badge  of  Warwick.  This  latter  badge  is  said  to  have  been  an 
allusion  to  the  name  of  the  real  founder  of  this  house,  Urso  de  Abitot,  constable 
of  the  castle  of  Worcester  in  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror. 

The  engraving  on  the  preceding  page  represents  a  carving-knife  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  preserved  in  the  Louvre,  at  Paris.  The  handle  is  of  ivory, 
and  the  part  of  the  blade  immediately  adjoining  to  it  is  enriched  with  gilt 
ornaments.  On  the  blade  is  inscribed  the  benedictio  mensce,  or  grace,  with 
musical  notes  for  chanting.  The  words  of  the  grace  (which  are  few  and 
simple)  are — 

"  Quae  sumpturi  [sumus]  benedicat  trinus  et  unus." 

The  whole  length,  including  blade  and  handle,  is  eleven  inches. 


.. 


' 


SHOOTING  AT  THE  BUTT. 


OPULAR  traditions  and  the  legendary 
ballads  of  former  days  have  contributed 
much  towards  keeping  up  an  interest 
for  the  ancient  practice  of  the  bow. 
In  the  time  of  the  Edwards  and  the 
Henries,  "the  myght  of  the  realme  of 
Englonde  stode  upon  archeres."  In 
fact,  the  battles  of  Crecy  and  Agin- 
court,  and  many  others,  were  decided 
by  the  English  long-bows.  Many  laws 
on  this  subject  show  how  anxious  the 
successive  monarchs  were  to  make 
their  subjects  skilful  in  the  use  of  this 
weapon ;  and  as  many  incidents  men- 
tioned by  old  historians  show  how  powerful  it  was  in  their  hands.  The 
armour  of  the  knights  was  itself  scarcely  proof  against  the  force  of  the 
English  arrows.  It  was  a  law  that  a  butt  should  be  erected  in  every 
township  ;  and  the  inhabitants  were  obliged  to  practise  at  them  on  Sundays 
and  holidays,  and  were  liable  to  fines  for  omitting  to  do  so.  The  length  of 
the  bow  seems  generally  to  have  been  equal  to  the  height  of  a  man  ;  the  arrow 
measured  generally  "  a  cloth-yard." 

The  use  of  the  lemg-bow  was  common  among  the  Anglo-Saxons ;  though  it 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  of  general  and  efficient  use  in  war  before  the 
twelfth  or  even  the  thirteenth  century.  Abroad  the  arbalest,  or  cross-bow, 
was  more  in  fashion,  particularly  among  the  Italians.  The  long-bow  was, 
however,  found  to  be  the  more  formidable  of  the  two,  but  it  required  more  skill, 
and  we  find  that  at  least  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  cross-bow  began  to  super- 
sede it  in  England.  Ordinances  were  made  to  counteract  this  tendency ;  and 
the  cross-bow  was  sometimes  forbidden  except  under  certain  restrictions. 

The  manuscript  from  which  the  accompanying  plate  is  taken  (MS.  Reg.  l!) 
C.  VIII.,)  containing  a  moral  work  entitled  the  Imagination  de  vraye  Noblesse, 
was  written  at  the  manor  of  Shene  (Richmond),  on  the  last  day  of  June  14>)(i, 
as  we  learn  from  a  note  by  the  scribe  at  the  end  of  the  volume  ;  *  and  it  may 
therefore  be  considered  as  exhibiting  the  costume  and  manners  of  the  English 


*  The  note  gives  also  the  name  of  the  scribe. — "  Explicit  L'lmaginacion  de  vraye  Noblesse, 
paracheve  le  dernier  jour  de  Juyn  au  Manoir  de  Shene  l'an  mil  CCC.  iiijxx.  et  xvj.  par  Poulet." 


at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  We  have  here  the  parish  butt ;  and  the 
archers  engaged  in  shooting  for  the  prize.  They  use  the  arbalest  or  cross- 
bow, and  not  the  long-bow.  One  of  them  is  engaged  in  putting  his  weapon 
ready  for  shooting,  which  was  done  by  drawing  back  the  cord  of  the  bow  by 
means  of  a  machine  attached  to  the  lock.  The  butt  had  a  white  circle  in  the 
middle,  and  the  object  of  the  archer  was  to  place  his  arrow  within  the  white. 
This  picture  illustrates  a  passage  in  the  book  where  the  different  manners  in 
which  courtiers  pursue  their  several  objects  is  compared  to  the  various  modes 
practised  by  the  arbalestriers  to  aim  with  surety  at  the  mark  on  the  butt. 
The  passage  itself  is  curious,  and,  as  well  as  illustrating  the  subject,  it  may 
serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  language  in  which  the  book  is  written. 

"  Car  ainsi  comme  tu  vois  que  a  ung  jeu  de  buttes  se  assemblent  arbalestriers 
de  maintes  parties  oil  chascun  met  paine  de  tirer  et  ferir  au  blanc  pour 
gaigner  le  pris,  et  ad  ce  se  appliquent  en  diverses  manieres  tres  subtilles  et 
ingenieuses,  les  uns  pour  avoir  plus  aspre  veue  clungnent  l'oeil,  les  autres  se 
tiennent  &  yeulx  ouvers,  a  bras  crom  que  on  dit  potente,  et  pluseurs  a  bras 
estendus."    (Fol.  39,  v°). 

In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  when  the  use  of  the  gun  was  superseding  that  of 
the  bow,  there  arose  a  warm  controversy  on  their  respective  merits,  and  many 
asserted  that  the  former  weapon  would  never  succeed  in  the  general  practice 
of  warfare.  One  writer  of  that  time,  after  discussing  the  question,  concludes, 
"  that  ther  is  no  doubt,  but  archers  with  their  vollees  of  arrowes,  will  wound, 
kill,  and  hurt  above  an  hundred  men  and  horses,  for  every  one  so  to  be  done 
by  the  shot."  The  following  extract  from  a  MS.  treatise  on  Martial  Discipline 
gives  a  curious  description  of  the  arrangement  and  accoutrement  of  tbe 
archers,  while  they  still  continued  to  form  a  part  of  the  military  force  of  the 
kingdom. 


6 


"  Archersor  longe  Bowes. — Captaines  and  officers  shoulde  bee  skilfull  of  that 
moste  noble  weapon,  and  to  see  that  theire  souldieis  accordinge  to  their 
strengthe  and  drought  have  good  bowes,  well  nocked,  well  stringed,  and  everye 
stringe  whipped  in  the  nocke  and  in  the  middest  rubbed  over  with  waxxe, 
bracer  and  sutinge  glove,  somme  spake  stringes  stringed  as  aforesaide,  everye 
man  one  sheafe  of  arrowes,  with  case  of  leather,  defensable  againste  the  rayne  : 
and  in  the  same  ffower  and  twentie  arrowes,  whereof  eight  of  them  shoulde  be 
flighter  than  the  residue,  to  gall  or  stone  the  enemies  with  haile  shotte  of  lighte 
arrowes  before  they  shall  come  within  the  danger  of  their  hargabusse  shotte. 
Lett  everye  man  have  a  brigandine,  or  a  little  coate  of  plate,  a  skull  or  husken, 
a  mawle  of  leade  of  five  foote  long  and  a  pike  in  the  same  hanginge  bye  his 
girdle,  with  a  hooke  and  a  dagger.  Beinge  thus  furnished,  teache  them  by 
musters  to  marche,  shote,  and  retire,  keepinge  their  faces  uppon  their  enemies, 
sometimes  putt  them  into  greate  nombers  as  to  a  battell  appertaineth,  and  thus 
to  see  them  often  tymes  practised,  till  thay  be  perfecte,  ffor  those  men  in 
battell  ne  skirmishe  cannot  be  spared,  none  other  weapon  maye  compare  with 
the  same  noble  weapon." 

The  figure  in  the  foreground  of  our  picture,  presents  a  good  specimen  of  the 
costume  of  the  English  peasant  at  this  period. 


THE  SOVEREIGNS  OF  EUROPE  WORSHIPPING 

ST.  GEORGE. 


REAT  difficulties  present  themselves  in  at- 
tempting to  give  an  exact  date  to  the  beauti- 
ful illumination  represented  in  our  engraving. 
The  original,  which  is  in  a  private  collection, 
is  executed  on  vellum,  in  the  most  exquisite 
manner,  and  has  evidently  been  cut  out  of  a 
book,  which  is  now  lost,  or,  at  least,  of  which 
nothing  is  known.     The  picture  represents 
six    of    the    principal   sovereign    princes    of 
Europe,   performing  their  devotions    at   the 
altar  of  St.  George,  the  patron  saint  of  Eng- 
land.     The   armorial   bearings   leave    no    doubt   as    to    the   princes 
intended  to  be  represented.     The  figure  on  the  right  hand  side  of 
the  picture,  is  the  king  of  England.     The  personage  behind,  next  to 
the  English  monarch,  is  the  king  of  Spain.     Before  the  altar  kneels 
the  emperor ;  and  behind  him  are  the  king  of  the  Romans  and  (fur- 
ther to  the  right)  the  archduke  of  Austria.     At  the  side  of  the  altar,  on  the 
left  hand  side  of  the  picture,  kneels  the  king  of  France. 

It  is  of  importance  to  know  the  date  of  this  picture,  because  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  it  furnishes  a  collec- 
tion of  portraits  of  contemporary 
princes.  The  style  of  painting,  and 
the  figure  of  the  English  king,  point 
out  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  The 
intrigues  of  that  monarch  in  the 
affairs  of  the  continent,  ended  in  his 
being  chosen,  at  least,  as  the  apparent 
umpire  in  settling  the  disputes  be- 
tween the  houses  of  Austria  and 
France,  in  which  the  princes  here 
represented  were  all  more  or  less 
engaged ;  and  a  treaty  between  these 
parties  was  concluded  in  the  year 
1492,  by  the  intermediation  of  our 
King  Henry.  It  is  possible  our  pic- 
ture may  be  of  that  period,  and  may 
have  been  intended  to  represent  the 
parties  in  the  treaty  acknowledging 
in  the  person  of  St.  George  the 
superiority  of  the  English  nation,  a  stroke  of  flattery  intended  to  soothe  the 


popular  discontent  at  the  unwarlike  conduct  of  their  sovereign.  In  this  case, 
the  aged  emperor  would  answer  very  well  to  Frederick  III.,  who  had  borne  the 
imperial  crown  ever  since  A.  D.  1440  (i.  e.  fifty-two  years),  and  died  in  the 
year  following.  The  king  of  the  Romans  would  be  Maximilian  (afterwards 
the  Emperor  Maximilian  I.),  who  supported,  with  so  much  courage  and 
activity,  the  cause  of  Anne  of  Britany  against  the  French  king.  The  latter 
was  Charles  VIII.,  who  reigned  from  1483  to  1498,  and  succeeded  in  making 
Anne  of  Britany  his  queen,  after  she  had  been  affianced  to  Maximilian.  If 
our  conjecture  be  right,  the  other  princes  are  Philip,  archduke  of  Austria  and 
duke  of  Burgundy,  and  Ferdinand,  king  of  Spain,  who,  in  the  course  of  these 
disputes,  had  invaded  the  south  of  France  in  support  of  the  cause  of  Anne 
and  of  Maximilian. 

The  wood-cut  at  the  bottom  of  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  splendid 
"  Blason  d'  Armoiries"  (MS.  Harl.  No.  4038),  written  in  French  in  the  year 
1629 ;  it  exhibits  the  manner  of  placing  the  mantling  on  the  helmet.  The 
figure  on  the  present  page  represents  a  lamp  of  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
century,  in  the  collection  of  Mons.  Dugue  of  Paris.  Similar  lamps,  of  the 
same  classic  form  (which  appears  to  have  been  derived  through  a  succession 
of  ages  from  the  Romans),  are  still  used  in  some  parts  of  France.  The  branch 
with  notches  serves  to  raise  the  hinder  part  of  the  lamp  as  the  oil  diminishes, 
so  as  to  throw  it  forward  to  the  wick.  The  one  end  of  the  horizontal  beam 
or  rod  was  generally  inserted  into  the  side  of  a  kind  of  wooden  candlestick. 

Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  a  fine  MS.  of  St.  Augustine's  Treatise  De 
Civitate  Dei,  in  the  British  Museum  (MS.  Burney,  No.  292),  executed  in 
Italy  towards  the  latter  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 


HLEVATIOK    OP    THE    HOST. 


ELEVATION  OF  THE  HOST. 


UR  engraving  is  taken  from  a  miniature 
on  vellum,  preserved  in  a  collection  of 
similar  pictures  cut  out  from  ancient 
illuminated  manuscripts,  and  now  in 
the  possession  of  Mr.  Yarman.  It 
represents  the  elevation  of  the  host 
at  the  moment  of  consecration  in  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass,  and  the  subject 
is  happily  treated.  It  is  indeed  one 
of  the  most  interesting  pictures  of 
the  kind  that  we  have  met  with, 
with  regard  both  to  the  subject  and 
to  the  execution.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  of  its  being  of  Flemish  workmanship,  of  about  the  latter  part 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  it  most  probably  belonged  to  some 
splendid  missal  or  service  book. 

The  choir,  raised  upon  a  crypt,  is  approached  by  a  double  flight 
of  steps.  The  priest  standing  at  the  altar  is  in  the  act  of  elevating 
the  host  (hostia),  the  consecrated  bread  for  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist, 
while  the  deacon  and  subdeacon,  on  their  knees,  support  the  chasuble  of  the 
celebrant.  The  deacon  wears  the  dalmatic,  and  the  subdeacon  the  tunic.  An 
acolyth,  in  his  white  surplice,  kneels  at  each  corner  in  front  of  the  altar, 
bearing  a  torch.  Further  down  the  choir,  stand  two  assistants  or  cantors, 
with  their  choral  books  in  their  hands,  and  habited  in  capes,  red  and  gold, 
which  is  the  colour  of  the  suite  of  vestments.  On  each  side  of  the  choir  are 
the  canons  in  their  stalls,  upon  their  knees,  all  in  surplices,  and,  like  the 
clergy  at  the  altar,  tonsured. 

The  antipendium  or  frontal  of  the  altar,  is  red  and  gold,  and  blue  curtains 
hang  at  the  sides ;  over  the  altar  is  a  tablet,  in  the  centre  of  which  is  repre- 
sented the  Virgin  and  Child.  The  priests'  stalls  and  those  of  the  canons  are 
richly  carved. 

In  the  nave  of  the  church  is  a  group  of  laity  in  the  act  of  adoration,  makinsr 
a  good  foreground  to  the  picture,  which  receives  its  light  from  the  windows  in 
the  choir,  and  through  the  arch  of  the  crypt,  in  which  is  seen  another  altar. 


The  cut  below  represents  an  iron  lock  of  the  fifteenth  century,  now  in  the 
collection  of  M.  Dugue  at  Paris.  It  came  from  Plessis  les  Tours,  and  is  of 
the  age  of  Louis  XL,  the  contemporary  of  our  King  Edward  IV.  One  of  tho 
turrets  moves  by  pressure  on  the  pinnacle,  and  thus  discovers  the  key-hole. 


A    CENSER. 


FROM  AN  ENGRAVING  BY  MARTIN  SCHOEN. 


N  the  ages  of  Catholicism,  the  censer,  the  use  of 
which  seems  to  have  been  derived  from  the  ancient 
Jewish  ceremonial,  was  one  of  the  most  important 
sacred  utensils  in  the  church.  After  the  Reforma- 
tion, this,  as  well  as  most  of  the  other  utensils  of  the 
older  church  ceremonies,  was  thrown  aside,  and  it 
was  then  introduced,  as  an  article  of  luxury,  into 
the  houses  of  the  rich.  This  latter  usage  is  not 
unfrequently  alluded  to  in  the  earlier  dramatic 
writers.  The  sacred  utensil  was  by  degrees  brought 
to  a  still  lower  stage  of  degradation  in  the  use  which 

was  made  of  it,  when  it  became  part  of  the  furniture  of  a  barber's 

shop  :  so  saith  Shakespeare — 

"  O  mercy,  God  !  what  masking  stuff  is  here? 
What's  this?  a  sleeve?  'tis  like  a  demi-cannon  : 
What!  up  and  down,  carved  like  an  apple  tart? 
Here's  snip,  and  nip,  and  cut,  and  slish,  and  slash, 
Like  to  a  censer  in  a  barber's  shop  : — 
Why,  what,  o'devil's  name,  tailor,  call'st  thou  this  ?" 

Of  course  the  censer  in  its  descent  from  the  church  to  the  stall,  was  degraded 
in  form  as  well  as  use.  The  censer  represented  in  our  plate  is  not  only  of 
extreme  beauty  in  itself,  but  it  is  remarkable  on  account  of  the  person  who 
originally  designed  and  engraved  it.  Martin  Schoen,  or,  more  properly, 
Schongauer,  was  a  goldsmith  of  Colmar.  He  is  commonly  stated  to  have  been 
born  about  the  year  1420,  and  to  have  been,  if  not  the  first  inventor,  one  of 
the  two  first  who  are  known  to  have  practised  the  art  of  engraving  on  copper, 
his  rival  for  that  honour  being  his  contemporary,  Maso  Finiguerra,  of  Florence. 
Mr.  Ottley,  in  his  "  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  and  Early  History  of  Engraving 
upon  Copper  and  in  Wood,"  appears,  however,  to  have  proved  satisfactorily 
that  he  was  born  in  1453,  and  that  he  died  in  14(J9-  The  engravings  of 
Martin  Schongauer  are  remarkable  for  their  beauty,  insomuch  that  he  has 
obtained  among  his  countrymen  the  epithet  of  "  Martin  Hipsch  '*  (hand- 
some Martin).     His  works  are  much   superior  to  those  of  any  of  his  con- 


temporaries,  and  are  scarcely,  if  at  all,  excelled  by  the  best  works  of  Albert 
Durer.  He  has  left  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  engravings,  all  of  them  rare, 
and  much  admired  and  sought  after.  Mr.  Ottley,  in  the  work  above  quoted, 
has  enumerated  a  hundred  and  sixteen  authentic  pieces  of  this  artist.  His 
two  capital  pieces  are  one  representing  the  Bearing  of  the  Cross,  and  one  of 
St.  Anthony  carried  into  the  air  and  tormented  by  the  demons.  The  first  of 
these  plates  is  said  to  have  been  greatly  admired  by  Michael  Angelo,  who 
made  a  particular  study  of  it  in  his  youth.  The  temptations  of  St.  Anthony 
formed  a  most  prolific  source  of  designs  to  the  early  painters  and  engravers. 
The  plates  of  Martin  Schongauer,  like  the  one  here  given,  are  marked  with 
the  letters  M.  S.,  having  a  cross  between  them.  This  distinguished  artist, 
on  his  death  in  the  year  above-named,  left  unfinished  an  engraving  repre- 
senting a  battle  between  the  Saracens  and  the  Christians.  At  that  time, 
according  to  the  account  commonly  received,  Albert  Durer,  then  a  youth, 
was  on  the  point  of  being  sent  to  Colmar,  by  his  father,  to  study  under  him. 
Mr.  Ottley,  however,  seems  to  have  proved  pretty  satisfactorily  that  this  is  an 
error ;  and  its  authenticity  depends  entirely  on  the  erroneous  date  generally 
given  for  Schongauer's  death.  Durer  was,  if  not  a  disciple,  a  warm  admirer 
of  the  artist  of  Colmar.  Martin  was  a  painter  as  well  as  an  engraver,  and 
several  of  his  works  in  the  latter  branch  of  art  are  still  preserved.  The 
original  design  of  his  plate  of  the  Bearing  of  the  Cross  is  in  the  Gallery  of 
the  Louvre  at  Paris. 

The  Initial  Letter  on  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  very  large  vellum 
manuscript  of  the  Confessio  Amantis  of  the  poet  Gower.  It  is  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum,  MS.  Harl.  No.  7184,  and  was  written  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  This  MS.,  unfortunately  not  quite  perfect,  is  one  of  the  finest  copies 
we  have  of  the  chief  work  of  "  moral  Gower."  The  Confessio  Amantis,  which 
is  a  singular  monument  of  the  poetry  of  the  age,  was  written  at  the  command 
of  Richard  II.,  Gower's  patron,  and  was  first  printed  by  Caxton,  the  father  of 
English  printers.  It  is  a  kind  of  an  allegorical  work,  written  partly  in  imita- 
tion of  the  style  of  the  famous  Romance  of  the  Rose,  and  is  well  worthy  to 
be  perused  by  all  who  are  desirous  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the  early 
literature  of  our  forefathers. 


A  RELIQUARY. 


bling 


I  HE  beautiful  subject  represented  in  our 
engraving  is  a  Reliquary,  an  article  of  the 
church  plate  used  in  the  days  of  Catho- 
licism to  contain  the  relics  of  saints, 
which  were  then  objects  of  superstitious 
reverence.  It  appears  to  be  a  work  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  is  an  interesting  object,  of  which  we 
have  few  if  any  other  examples  resem- 
it.  It  is  at  present  in  the  collection  of  the  Hon.  Robert 
Curzon,  Junior,  who  purchased  it  at  Venice,  but  of  its  further 
history  nothing  is  known.  It  is  a  fine  monument  of  the  taste  of 
the  age  in  which  it  was  made.  It  is  of  silver.  The  orna- 
ments of  the  foot  are  elegantly  worked  in  nielli ;  three  of  the 
departments  are  embellished  with  half-figures  of  saints.  The  boss 
from  which  the  branches  spring  is  picked-in  with  enamel.  Each 
branch  supports  a  little  box  of  crystal,  in  which  the  relics  were 
deposited.  The  notched  bar  which  runs  across  the  supporting 
column,  appears  also  to  have  been  intended  to  hold  a  box  or  other 
receptacle  to  contain  a  relic,  perhaps  of  larger  dimensions  than 
those  which  were  placed  in  the  other  boxes. 

The  ink-case  represented  in  the  margin  of  the  present  page,  is 
a  curious  relic  of  the  sanguinary  wars  of  the  Roses.  There  seems 
little  room  for  doubting  that  it  belonged  to  Henry  VI.  According 
to  the  tradition  connected  with  it,  when  that  unfortunate  monarch 
wandered  about  Yorkshire  seeking  safety  by  concealment,  after 
the  fatal  and  bloody  battle  of  Towton,  he  remained  nine  days  at 
Bolton  Hall,  near  Gisburn.  He  was  then  on  his  way  to  Wad- 
dington  Hall,  where  he  was  discovered  and  made  a  prisoner.  At 
Bolton  Hall  he  left  his  boots,  knife,  fork,  and  spoon,  and  at 
Waddington  his  inkhorn.  It  came  thence  into  the  possession  of 
Edward  Parker,  Esq.,  of  Brewsholme,  and  by  his  descendant 
Thomas  Lister  Parker,  Esq.,  it  was  given  to  the  Hon.  Robert 
Curzon.  This  curious  relic  of  a  monarch  who  was  truly  fitted 
rather  for  the  pen  than  the  sword,  seems  to  have  been  one  of 
the  last  articles  which  he  retained  about  his  person,  after  he  had  quitted  both 
his  superfluous  articles  of  clothing,  and  the  knife,  fork,  and  spoon,  with  which 
he  took  his  meals,  and  which  princes  and  nobles  seem  constantly  to  have 
carried  about  with  them.  There  are  few  more  remarkable  memorials  of  fallen 
greatness,  none  which  bring  more  forcibly  to  our  minds  the  amiable  character 


of  their  hapless  owner.     How  feeling  are  the  lines  which  our  great  bard  puts 
in  his  mouth  at  this  period  of  his  misfortunes  ! — 

"  O  God  !  methinks  it  were  a  happy  life, 

To  be  no  better  than  a  homely  swain ; 

To  sit  upon  a  hill,  as  I  do  now, 

To  carve  out  dials  quaintly,  point  by  point. 

Thereby  to  see  the  minutes  how  they  run : 

How  many  make  the  hour  full  complete, 

How  many  hours  bring  about  the  day, 

How  many  days  will  finish  up  the  year, 

How  many  years  a  mortal  man  may  live. 

When  this  is  known,  then  to  divide  the  times : 

So  many  hours  must  I  tend  my  flock ; 

So  many  hours  must  I  take  my  rest ; 

So  many  hours  must  I  contemplate  ; 

So  many  hours  must  I  sport  myself; 

So  many  days  my  ewes  have  been  with  young; 

So  many  weeks  ere  the  poor  fools  will  yean  ; 

So  many  years  ere  I  shall  shear  the  fleece ; 

So  minutes,  hours,  days,  weeks,  months,  and  years, 

Pass'd  over  to  the  end  they  were  created, 

Would  bring  white  hairs  unto  a  quiet  grave. 

Ah,  what  a  life  were  this  I  how  sweet !  how  lovely  ! 

Gives  not  the  hawthorn  bush  a  sweeter  shade 

To  shepherds,  looking  on  their  silly  sheep, 

Than  doth  a  rich  embroider'd  canopy 

To  kings,  that  fear  their  subjects'  treachery  1" 

The  king's  ink-case  is  made  of  leather,  much  in  the  same  style  and  form 
as  was  commonly  used  for  articles  of  the  same  description  up  to  the  present 
century.  It  is  ornamented  with  considerable  elegance ;  and  it  bears,  among 
other  figures,  the  arms  of  England,  and  the  rose  of  the  house  of  Lancaster 
surmounted  by  the  crown.  The  cover  is  attached  to  the  body  of  the  case 
by  a  sliding  cord  of  silk.  In  the  inside  are  three  cells,  one  for  the  reception 
of  the  ink-stand,  the  other  two  to  hold  pens,  &c. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  foregoing  page,  is  a  copy  of  one  of  the  illuminated 
letters  in  a  printed  book  of  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  in  the 
British  Museum. 


CUP,  BY  ANDREA  MANTEGNA. 


VERY  one  who  examines  the  pictures  of  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  and  beginning1  of  the  six- 
teenth  centuries,  is  struck  with  the  elegance 
exhibited  in  the  forms  and  ornaments  of  many 
of  the  cups  and  vases  of  that  period.  The 
designs  for  these  utensils  were  often  given  by 
the  first  artists  of  the  day ;  and  of  these  designs 
some,  which  were  perhaps  never  executed,  have 
been  multiplied  by  the  engravers  of  a  later  date 
who  had  obtained  possession  of  the  original 
drawings.  In  this  manner,  the  fine  design  for  a  cup  by  Andrea  Mantegna, 
which  is  given  in  the  accompanying  plate,  was  engraved  in  1643  by  Hollar, 
who  found  the  drawing  in  the  collection  then  existing  at  Arundel  House. 
Andrea  Mantegna  (in  Latin,  Mantenius)  was  an  historical  painter  and  engraver 
of  Padua,  in  Italy,  who  enjoyed  a  great  celebrity  in  the  fifteenth  century.  He 
died  in  1505,  at  the  age  of  seventy -five,  and  left  a  great  number  of  paintings 
and  other  works  of  art.  Some  fine  pieces  by  this  artist  may  be  seen  in  the 
gallery  at  Hampton  Court. 

At  the  foot  of  the  next  page  we  have  given  a  figure  of  a  cup  from  a 
splendidly  illuminated  manuscript  of  the  fifteenth  century,  preserved  in  the 
Library  of  the  Arsenal,  at  Paris.  It  represents  one  of  those  goblets,  or 
drinking  vessels,  which  were  formerly  designated  by  the  name  of  a  hanap. 
The  derivation  of  this  word  has  not  yet  been  satisfactorily  ascertained  ;  but  it 
is  supposed  to  be  taken  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  hnap,  the  modern  German 
napf,  a  cup,  or  goblet.  The  name  in  low  Latin  was  hanapus,  or  hanaphus ; 
in  old  French  hanaps ;  and  in  the  latter  language  we  have  Iianapee,  a  cup- 
full  ;  hanapel,  a  little  cup ;  hanaper  (hanaperium)  was  the  name  given  to  the 
place  in  which  these  cups  were  preserved.  In  the  English  chancer}',  the 
fees  which  were  paid  for  sealing  charters,  deeds,  &c,  were  deposited  in  a  laro-e 
cup  or  vessel  of  this  description ;  and  the  office  in  which  this  business  Mas 


done,  received  on  that  account  the  name  of  the  Hanaper,  the  person  who 
transacted  the  business  bearing  the  title  of  clerk  of  the  hanaper,  terms  which 
are  still  preserved. 

Hanaps  are  frequently  mentioned  in  old  documents.  In  an  inventory  of  the 
goods  of  the  Hospital  of  Wez  in  1350  (quoted  by  Roquefort,  Gloss,  v.  hanap), 
are  enumerated  a  hanap  of  silver,  without  foot,  five  hanaps  of  'madre'  with 
silver  feet,  and  sixteen  hanaps  of  'madre'  without  feet,  the  latter  being  "of 
small  value."  In  a  will  dated  March  5,  1361  (quoted  by  Roquefort,  v.  madre) 
we  have  again  mention  of  three  hanaps  of  '  madre.'  Another  person,  in  a  will 
dated  Aug.  23,  1375,  (Roquef.  v.  queuvre),  bequeaths  "all  the  hanaps  and 
vessels  of  silver,  'madre,'  copper,  latten,  brass,  and  tin."  {Item,  tout  ce  qu'il 
a  en  hanneperie  et  vaisselement  d'argent,  de  madre,  de  queuvre,  de  laiton, 
d'airain,  et  d'etain).  The  material  indicated  by  the  name  madre,  has  not  yet 
been  satisfactorily  explained ;  it  appears  to  have  been  something  next  in  value 
to  silver,  and  has  been  supposed  to  be  some  kind  of  stone.  It  was  chiefly  used 
for  making  cups,  which  were  so  commonly  of  this  material,  that  the  word 
itself  became  used  for  a  cup.  Many  instances  are  given  by  Ducange,  v- 
mazer. 

The  cut  at  the  bottom  of  the  preceding  page  is  a  specimen  of  jewellery  from 
a  coronet  round  a  female  head  in  a  picture  by  Hemlinck,  now  in  the  hospital 
of  St.  John  at  Bruges.  It  is  intended  to  represent  gold,  with  pearls  and  jewels 
of  various  colours. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  manuscript  in  the 
British  Museum  (MS.  Reg.  16,  F.  II.),  said  to  have  been  executed  for  Eliza- 
beth of  York,  queen  of  Henry  VII. 


NIELLO  CUP, 

IN  THE  BRITISH  MUSEUM. 

EFORE  the  introduction  of  printing  from  engraved 
plates,  the  art  of  engraving  had  heen  long  practised, 
although  with  a  somewhat  different  object.  Engraved 
ornaments  are  found  of  the  highest  antiquity.  Instead 
of  being  embossed,  they  were  covered  with  scroll-work, 
arabesques,  or  figures,  cut  into  the  metal  with  a  sharp 
instrument,  the  engraved  lines  being  afterwards  filled 
up  with  a  dark-coloured  substance  named  in  Low-Latin 
nigellum,  from  which  appears  to  be  derived  the  Italian  name  niello.  After 
having  fallen  into  some  neglect,  this  art  became  very  fashionable  in  Italy  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  and  was  practised  with  great  success.  About  1450, 
flourished  Maso,  or  Tommaso  Finiguerra,  a  native  of  Florence,  who  was 
peculiarly  eminent  in  this  branch  of  art,  and  some  of  his  productions,  of  the 
most  exquisite  workmanship,  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  church  of  St.  Giovanni 
in  that  city.  He  made  chiefly  pixes,  and  other  articles  of  plate  belonging  to 
the  service  of  the  church.  The  designs  were  scratched  on  the  surface  of  the 
silver,  in  the  manner  of  pen-and-ink  drawings.  The  niello  is  said  to  have 
been  composed  of  a  mixture  of  silver,  copper,  lead,  sulphur,  and  borax,  fused 
and  mixed,  and  afterwards  reduced  to  a  powder.  This  was  spread  over  the 
engraved  parts,  and  then  again  fused  by  blowing  over  it  the  flame  of  a  clear 


fire ;  the  melted  niello,  in  cooling,  attached  itself  firmly  to  the  rough  parts  of 
the  engraved  silver ;  when  cold  it  was  rubbed  smooth  with  a  pumice  stone,  the 
niello  in  the  engraved  lines  was  all  that  remained,  and  the  whole  was  then 
polished  with  the  hand,  or  with  leather.  As  no  alteration  could  be  made  after 
the  application  of  the  niello,  it  became  necessary  to  take  proofs  of  the  work 
before  the  lines  were  filled  up,  in  order  to  examine  its  effect ;  this  was  some- 
times done  with  damped  paper,  the  lines  being  filled  up  with  a  black  substance 
transferred  to  the  paper  by  passing  a  small  roller  over  it.  The  effect  of  this 
impression  on  the  paper  is  said  to  have  suggested  to  Finiguerra  the  idea  of 
making  prints  from  engraved  plates,  and  thus  gave  origin  to  the  art  of 
engraving  on  copper.  Finiguerra  himself  executed  many  engravings  of  con- 
siderable merit,  which  are  highly  valued  by  collectors. 

The  beautiful  Niello  Cup  represented  in  our  engraving,  is  supposed  to  have 
been  executed  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  It  was  formerly  in  the 
possession  of  the  noble  family  of  Van  Bekerhout,  who  presented  it  to  Calonier, 
the  celebrated  sculptor  of  the  statue  of  John  van  Eyk,  in  the  Academy  of  Arts 
at  Bruges.  It  was  purchased  from  his  widow  by  Mr.  Henry  Farrer,  and  has 
recently  been  acquired  by  the  British  Museum  for  the  sum  of  £350.  This 
cup  is  of  silver,  the  lower  part,  the  ornamental  rim  of  the  lid,  and  the  ornament 
at  the  top,  being  gilt.  The  designs  appear  to  be  altogether  fanciful.  The 
whole  height  is  9f  inches ;  the  diameter  of  the  rim  of  the  lid  being  A\  inches. 
The  figure  on  the  lid  holds  a  shield,  the  device  on  which  is  understood  to  be 
merely  ornamental  ;  it  is  not  the  armorial  bearings  of  the  family  to  which 
the  cup  belonged.  This  beautiful  piece  of  workmanship  was  not  known  to 
M.  Duchesne  Aine,  when  he  published  his  useful  Essai  snr  les  Nielles,  8vo. 
Paris,  1826. 

The  wood-cut  at  the  foot  of  the  preceding  page  represents  a  portion  of  the 
ornaments  of  a  beautiful  antipendium,  or  cloth  which  was  hung  at  the  front 
of  the  altar,  preserved  at  the  church  of  Santo  Spirito  at  Florence,  and  ap- 
parently made  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  ground  is  a 
crimson  velvet,  the  ornaments  being  of  gold  thread.  Our  initial  letter  is  taken 
from  an  early  printed  book. 


HERALDS  ANNOUNCING  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  VI. 

TO  HIS  SON. 


REAT  numbers  of  illuminated  manuscripts  of  ancient  and 
modern  chronicles  and  histories  show  the  taste  for  historical 
'  paintings  which  was  springing  up  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  which  led  to  the  great  schools  of  art  that  distinguished  that  and 
the  following  ages.  The  works  which  are  most  splendidly  illustrated 
are  generally  written  in  French,  but  were  frequently  painted  in  Flan- 
ders, where  there  existed  a  famous  school  of  illuminators.  The  chief 
artists  of  Flanders,  France,  and  Italy,  employed  themselves  at  this 
period  in  illumining  the  manuscripts  of  which  so  many  noble  speci- 
mens have  been  preserved  to  enrich  our  modern  libraries.  The  manu- 
scripts themselves  are  often  translations  of  the  Roman  historians.  But  the 
histories  of  a  later  date  which  are  most  distinguished  by  the  richness  of  their 
embellishments,  are  the  manuscripts  of  the  '  Grandes  Chroniques'  of  St.  Denis, 
and  of  the  annals  of  Froissart  and  Monstrelet. 

The  subject  in  the  accompanying  plate,  which  exhibits  the  costume  of 
French  heralds  of  the  time  of  Louis  XII.,  is  taken  from  a  fine  manuscript  of 
Monstrelet  executed  in  that  reign,  and  now  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library  at 
Paris  (No.  8299,5).  This  as  well  as  other  pictures  from  this  MS.,  is  given 
in  outline  in  the  plates  to  JohnsVtranslation  of  Monstrelet ;  but  the  imperfect 
manner  in  which  the  tight  under-dress  is  there  represented,  has  led  several 
writers  to  state  as  a  peculiarity  that  the  heralds  on  this  mournful  occasion 
went  with  their  legs  and  feet  naked.  They  are  represented  as  carrying  the 
pennon  or  banner  of  France,  and  announcing  the  death  of  Charles  VI.,  known 
to  his  contemporaries  by  the  appellation  of  "  the  well-beloved,"  to  his  son  and 
heir  the  Duke  of  Touraine,  who  succeeded  him  as  Charles  VII.  ;  and  in  the 
manuscript  are  placed  at  the  head  of  the  chapter  of  Monstrelet  which  describes 
this  event  (ch.  152  of  the  second  vol.  of  Johns's  English  translation).  Charles 
died  in  the  Hotel  de  St.  Paul  at  Paris,  on  the  22nd  Nov.,  1422;  at  which 
time  his  son  was  residing  at  a  small  castle  named  Espally,  near  Puy  in 
Languedoc. 

A  copy  of  the  chronicles  of  St.  Denis  written  in  the  reign  of  Charles  VI., 
and  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  (MS.  Sloan,  No.  2433),  furnishes  us 
with  a  subject  which  is  no  inappropriate  companion  to  the  plate,  and  which  we 
give  in  a  wood-cut  at  the  end  of  this  article.  It  represents  the  monks  of  St. 
Denis,  bringing  their  relics  from  the  monastery  to  cure  Louis,  the  eldest  son 


of  Philip  Auguste,  King  of  France,  who  had  been  left  regent  of  the  kingdom 
by  his  father,  during  his  expedition  to  the  East,  and  had  been  seized  with  a 
desperate  illness  in  1191. 

The  initial  letter  in  the  foregoing  page  is  taken  from  a  MS.  of  Lidgate's 
Life  of  St.  Edmund  the  King  and  Martyr,  MS.  Harl.  No.  2278. 


ARTHUR,  PRINCE  OF  WALES. 

FROM  THE  WINDOW  OF  GREAT  MALVERN  CHURCH. 


VERY  thing  connected  with  the  history  of  this 
amiahle  prince,  whose  virtues  and  accomplish- 
ments raised  the  expectations  of  his  contem- 
poraries, and  whose  untimely  fate  covered  the 
whole  kingdom  with  mourning,  must  be  inter- 
esting to  the  reader.  He  was  born  in  1486, 
and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  (in  1501)  he  was  mar- 
ried to  the  celebrated  Catherine  of  Aragon,  she 
being  then  eighteen  years  of  age.  The  old 
writers  speak  in  warm  terms  of  the  magnificent 
pageants  and  the  great  public  rejoicings  which,  at  London,  attended  on  this 
event,  and  they  describe  with  enthusiasm  "  the  riche  arras,  the  costly  tapestry, 
the  fyne  clothes  bothe  of  golde  and  silver,  the  curious  velvettes,  the  beautiful 
sattens,  and  the  pleasaunte  sylkes  which  did  hange  in  every  strete,"  as  well  as 
"  the  wyne  that  ranne  continually  out  of  the  conduytes,"  and  "  the  goodly 
ballades,  the  swete  armony,  the  musicall  instrumentes,  which  sounded  with 
heavenly  noyes  on  every  syde."  From  London  the  youthful  couple  were 
carried  to  the  noble  castle  of  Ludlow,  the  residence  of  the  prince ;  and  there 
he  died  in  the  month  of  April,  the  year  following,  leaving  the  inheritance  of 
the  English  crown,  as  well  as  his  unfortunate  wife,  to  his  younger  brother, 
afterwards  King  Henry  VIII.  On  his  death,  the  body  of  Prince  Arthur  was 
carried  in  procession  from  Ludlow  to  Worcester,  and  was  there  interred  in  the 
cathedral  church.  The  magnificent  monument  erected  there  to  his  memory 
is  still  preserved. 

The  picture  of  Prince  Arthur,  given  in  the  accompanying  plate,  is  taken 
from  the  beautiful  painted  glass  in  the  window  of  the  fine  old  church  of  Great 
Malvern,  in  Worcestershire.  The  window,  when  perfect,  represented  King 
Henry  VII.  and  his  queen,  with  Prince  Arthur,  Sir  Reginald  Bray,  John 
Savage,  and  Thomas  Lovel,  and  at  the  bottom  there  was  an  inscription  in 
the  following  words : 

2Dratc  pro  bono  statu  nobiliosimi  a  crccIIcntisBimi  rcajis  Bjcnrici  ■Scptimi  ct  ffiiija^ 
bctbe  rccinc  ac  Domini  artburi  principle  filii  coruntjem,  ncc  non  prctnlcctisoime 
consonic  sue,  ct  miorum  ttium  militum. 

The  window  was  made,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  immediately  after  Prince 
Arthur's  marriage,  and  therefore  when  he  was  in  his  sixteenth  year.     It  is 


now  much  defaced ;  and  the  window  itself  has  been  so  extensively  damaged, 
that  the  compartments  containing  the  figures  of  the  prince  and  of  Sir  Reginald 
Bray,  one  of  the  knights,  are  all  that  remain  in  tolerable  preservation.  Even 
these  have  received  some  damage  and  loss  in  the  ornaments  and  border,  and 
some  of  the  pieces  of  glass  have  been  placed  the  wrong  way  upwards  by  the 
hands  of  ignorant  workmen.  Enough,  however,  is  left  to  allow  of  an  accurate 
restoration  of  these  two  compartments.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century 
these  windows  were  so  much  neglected,  as  to  be  allowed  to  serve  as  a  mark 
for  the  boys  who  played  in  the  churchyard  to  aim  stones  at  the  different 
figures  represented  in  them. 

The  figure  below  is  taken  from  a  manuscript  of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
or  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris,  fonds 
Lavalliere,  No.  44. 


H 


fc 


HORSE  AND  ATTENDANT. 


glish 


HE  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  is  conspicuous  in  En 
history  as  the  period  of  pompous  and  splendid  pageants. 
One  of  the  most  gorgeous  of  these  exhibitions  is 
pictured  in  an  illuminated  roll,  still  preserved  in  the 
College  of  Arms,  and  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Tournament  Roll.  This  curious  document  has  fur. 
nished  us  with  the  subject  of  our  present  plate. 

The  tournament  represented  on  this  roll  was  exhi- 
bited, with  other  pageants,  at  Westminster,  in  the  second  year  of  the  King's  reign, 
on  the  13th  day  of  February,  1510-11,  in  honour  of  Queen  Catherine,  and  on 
occasion  of  the  birth  of  the  king's  first  child,  Prince  Henry,  who  died  but  a  few 
days  after  these  revels  had  been  performed.  The  king,  who  entered  heartily 
into  all  such  diversions,  was  one  of  the  four  knights,  and  bore  the  title  of  Noble 
Cueur  Loyal.  The  other  three  were  William  Earl  of  Devonshire,  whose  title 
was  Bon  Vouloir ;  Sir  Edward  Nevile,  who  was  Vaillant  Dcsijr ;  and  Sir 
Thomas  Knevet,  who,  according  to  Hollingshed  who  has  given  a  detailed 
account  of  the  exhibition,  represented  Bon  Espoir,  but  who  is  entitled  in  the 
Roll  JoyeuLv  Penser.  The  king  rode  under  a  pavilion  of  cloth  of  gold  and 
purple  velvet,  'powdered'  with  the  letters  H  and  11  in  fine  gold.      The  other 


knights  also  rode  under  rich  pavilions,  and  the  pages  and  attendants  were  all 
in  splendid  costumes,  many  of  them  '  powdered'  in  a  similar  manner.  A 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  gentlemen  followed  the  pavilions  on  foot ;  and  twelve 
'*  children  of  honour '  came  after  them  on  rich  coursers. 

The  Roll  represents  the  whole  procession  to  the  scene  of  these  '  solemne 
justes,'  and  furnishes  us  no  doubt  with  an  exact  portraiture  of  the  different 
costumes  of  the  persons  who  figured  at  it.  It  is  very  long,  and  contains  a 
great  number  of  figures.  The  whole  was  engraved  on  a  reduced  scale,  and 
published  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Vetusta  Monumenta.  Our  figure  is  one 
of  those  entitled  in  the  original,  Les  Selles  cTAnnes.  If  the  drawings  are  not 
exaggerated,  it  must  have  been  a  splendid  pageant,  requiring  an  immense 
expenditure  of  money.  At  the  conclusion,  the  spectators  were  allowed  to 
strip  the  knights,  and  to  scramble  for  the  ornaments  of  their  dresses.  Holling- 
shed  tells  us  that  "  at  this  solemnitie  a  shipman  of  London  caught  certeine 
letters,  which  he  sold  to  a  goldsmith  for  three  pounds  fourteene  shillings 
and  eight  pence ;  by  reason  wherof  it  appeered  that  the  garments  were  of 
great  value."  Hall  the  chronicler,  speaking  of  the  ceremonies  at  this  king's 
coronation,  observes  very  quaintly,  "  If  I  should  declare  what  pain,  labour, 
and  diligence,  the  taylers,  embrouderers,  and  golde  smithes  tooke,  bothe  to 
make  and  devise  garmentes,  for  lordes,  ladies,  knightes,  and  esquires,  and 
also  for  deckyng,  trappyng,  and  adornyng  of  coursers,  jenetes,  and  palffreis, 
it  wer  to  long  to  rehersse,  but  for  a  suretie,  more  riche,  nor  more  straunge, 
nor  more  curious  workes  hath  not  been  seen,  then  wer  prepared  against  this 
coronacion." 

At  one  end  of  the  roll  is  a  copy  of  verses,  in  five  stanzas,  in  praise  of 
the  king,  beginning — 

"  Oure  ryall  rose,  now  reinyng  rede  and  whyte, 
Sure  graftyd  is  on  grounde  of  nobylnes, 
In  Harry  the  viij.  our  joye  and  our  delyte, 
Subdewer  of  wronges,  mayntenar  of  rightwysnes, 
Fowntayne  of  honer,  exsampler  of  larges  ; 
Our  clypsyd  son  now  cleryd  is  from  the  darke 
By  Harry  our  kyng,  the  flowr  of  nateurs  warke." 

In  the  fourth  stanza,  the  king  is  put  on  a  par  with  the  nine  worthies, — 

"  Thow  ayre  to  Ector  in  armes  and  honor ! 

Julyos,  Judas,  nor  dewke  Josewe, 

In  so  short  tyme  their  famys  dyd  nevere  more  flowre ; 

Not  Charles  of  Fraunce,  nor  Arthure  the  worthe, 

Alexander  the  great,  full  of  liberalyte  ; 

Davyd  nor  Godfras  larges  was  not  lyke  thyne : 

Than  why  not  thow  the  tenth,  as  well  as  they  the  nyne  ?" 

The  figure  at  the  foot  of  the  preceding  page  is  taken  from  a  drawing  preserved 
in  a  manuscript  in  the  British  Museum  (MS.  Cotton.  Julius,  A.  I) ;  it  was 
evidently  the  design  for  a  tent  to  be  erected  on  some  solemn  occasion  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  perhaps  at  the  famous  meeting  of  the  Field  of  the  Cloth 
of  Gold. 


TROY   TOWN. 

•HE  annexed  plate  represents  a  portion  of  a  very 
splendid  illumination,  on  an  extremely  large  leaf 
of  vellum,  now  in  the  possession  of  M.  Debruge  at 
Paris.  It  lias  formed  part  of  a  noble  manuscript 
volume,  executed  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XII. 
(1498 — 1515).  The  subject  of  the  illumination  is 
the  rebuilding  of  the  city  of  Troy  by  Priam,  after 
it  had  been  sacked  by  Hercules.  Although  as  a 
whole  it  is  full  of  exaggeration  and  fancy,  yet  its 
parts  are  curious  examples  of  the  domestic  archi- 
tecture of  the  age.  The  houses  and  shops  are  particularly  interesting.  The 
building  in  front  is  a  richly  embellished  gateway.  Beneath,  the  right  hand 
side  of  the  gateway  appears  to  be  occupied  as  a  chemist's  shop.  Under  one 
arch  appears  the  chemist  or  apothecary  weighing  out  his  drugs,  whilst  another 
arch  in  the  gateway  discovers  to  us  his  man  employed  in  pounding  them  in  a 
mortar.  The  wares  exposed  to  sale  in  the  row  of  shops  in  the  street  are 
not  so  easily  determined ;  one  of  them  is  occupied  by  a  merchant  who  appears 
to  have  on  sale,  shoes,  stockings,  and  hats  or  caps. 

The  history  of  "  Troy  the  Great,"  as  it  is  called  in  the  old  romances,  was 
remarkably  popular  from  the  twelfth  century  downwards,  not  only  for  the 
interest  attached  to  the  feats  of  chivalry  connected  with  it,  but  because  most 
of  the  people  of  Western  Europe  had  begun  to  lay  claim  to  a  fabulous  origin 
from  some  of  the  Trojan  chieftains  who  were  supposed  to  have  wandered  over 
the  world  after  the  ruin  of  their  country.  This  history  was  in  general  founded 
upon  the  supposititious  tracts  which  went  under  the  names  of  Dares  of  Phrygia 
and  Dictys  of  Crete,  and  which  were  adapted,  by  those  who  translated  them, 
to  the  manners  and  notions  of  middle-age  chivalry.  We  frequently  meet  with 
anonymous  accounts  of  the  siege  of  Troy  in  old  manuscripts ;  and  it  often 
finds  a  place  in  chronicles  which  pretend  to  trace  back  the  history  of  the 
country  to  which  they  relate  to  its  origin.  About  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  there  was  composed  in  England  a  very  long  and  curious  Anglo- 
Norman  poem  on  the  siege  of  Troy,  extending  to  upwards  of  thirty  thousand 
lines,  by  a  trouvere  named  Benoit  de  Sainte  Maure,  to  whom  also  is  attributed 
the  extensive  metrical  chronicle  of  the  Norman  dukes  written  in  emulation  of 
Wace.  At  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  appeared  the  almost 
classical  Latin  poem  on  the  destruction  of  Troy  by  Joseph  of  Exeter,  which 
has  been  frequently  printed,  and  was  once  believed  to  be  a  work  of  the  better 
ages  of  the  Latin  language.  It  appears  therefore  that  England  produced  the 
two  first  middle-age  poems  on  this  subject.  That  of  Benoit  still  remains 
unedited,  though  copies  of  it  in  manuscript  are  not  uncommon 

At  the  latter  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  1287,  a  new  Latin  history  of 
the  siege  of  Troy  was  given  by  an  Italian  writer  named  Guido  de  Columnis, 
or  Delle  Colonne.  Many  authors  have  erroneously  stated  this  to  be  the 
earliest  of  the  Medieval  books  on  this  subject.     However,  Guido's  work  soon 


obtained  a  wide  popularity,  and,  having  thrown  almost  into  oblivion  the  previous 
works  on  the  same  subject,  became  the  groundwork  of  most  of  the  similar 
works  which  appeared  afterwards.  In  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  translated 
into  Italian ;  in  the  fifteenth  century  it  was  translated  into  French,  or  rather 
made  the  foundation  of  a  French  work,  by  Raoul  Lefevre,  chaplain  of  Philip 
the  Good,  duke  of  Burgundy,  who  informs  us  that  he  composed  it  in  1464. 
The  manuscripts  of  Lefevre's  book,  which  are  numerous,  are  in  general  richly 
illuminated.     There  are  many  copies  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris. 

It  will  easily  be  imagined  that  all  these  writers  on  the  Trojan  war  had  no 
great  acquaintance  with  the  writings  of  Homer,  which  they  considered  of  little 
value  or  authority.  The  earliest  of  them,  Benoit  de  Sainte  Maure,  after 
telling  us  that  Homer  was  a  "  marvellous  clerk,"  assures  us  that,  living  more 
than  a  hundred  years  after  the  event,  he  could  not  possibly  know  much  about 
it.  He  then  relates  a  cui'ious  anecdote  of  the  reception  which  Homer's 
"  history"  met  with  among  the  Athenians  : — 

When  lie  had  made  his  book  about  it, 


"  Quant  il  en  ot  son  livre  fet, 
Et  an  Athenes  lot  retret, 
Si  ot  estrenge  contencon  : 
Danpner  le  vostrent  par  reison 
Por  ce  qu'ot  fet  les  Dame-Dex 
Combatre  o  les  homes  charnex, 
Et  les  Deesses  ansement 
Feisoit  combatre  avoec  la  gent, 
Et  quant  son  livre  receterent, 
Pluisor  por  ce  le  refuserent ; 
Mes  tant  fu  Homers  de  grant  pris 
Et  tant  fist  puis,  si  con  je  truis, 
Que  ses  livres  fu  receuz 
Et  en  auctorite  tenuz." 


And  had  published  it  at  Athens, 

There  was  a  strange  contention  : 

They  rightly  wished  to  condemn  it 

Because  he  had  made  the  Gods 

Fight  with  carnal  men, 

And  the  goddesses  in  like  manner 

He  made  to  combat  with  the  people. 

And  when  they  recited  his  book, 

Many  for  that  reason  refused^it; 

But  Homer  had  so  great  reputation, 

And  he  exerted  himself  so  much,  as  I  find, 

That  his  book  was  at  last  received 

And  held  for  authority. 


Such  was  the  distorted  point  of  view  in  which  the  people  of  the  Middle  Ages 
regarded  the  works  of  the  ancients. 

The  earliest  English  poem  on  the  Trojan  War  which  we  know  is  Lydgate's 
"  Troy-Boke,"  one  of  the  best  of  that  poet's  works,  some  parts  of  it  being 
really  poetical.  Lydgate  began  it  in  1414,  at  the  command  of  King  Henry 
IV.,  but  it  was  not  finished  till  1420,  in  the  reign  of  his  successor,  Henry  V., 
to  whom  it  was  dedicated.  Lydgate  also  repudiates  Homer,  because  he  was 
too  favourable  to  the  Greeks. 

"  One  said  that  Omere  made  lies 

And  feinyng  in  his  poetries : 

And  was  to  the  Grekes  favorable, 

And  therefore  held  he  it  but  fable." 

In  the  Bodleian  library  is  preserved  another  long  English  poem  on  the  war  of 
Troy,  supposed  to  be  of  the  time  of  Henry  VI.  A  prose  English  version  of 
the  French  work  of  Lefevre,  as  well  as  the  original,  was  printed  by  Caxton, 
and  is  one  of  the  rarest  of  his  books.  The  subject  continued  popular  up  to 
the  time  when  Shakespeare  brought  the  tale  of  Troilus  and  Cressida  on  the 
English  stage  ;  and  the  drama  owes  many  of  its  characteristics  to  the  tint 
which  had  been  thrown  over  the  story  in  the  Middle- Ages. 


- 
- 


FIGURES  FROM  THE  TAPESTRY  OF  ST.  GERMAIN 

L'AUXERROIS. 


ESS  tasteful  in  every  respect  than  the 
dresses  of  previous  centuries,  the  cos- 
tume of  the  sixteenth  century  was  re- 
markably stiff  and  ungraceful,  yet  ex- 
ceedingly rich  and  expensive.  Even 
the  gowns  of  the  wives  of  merchants 
are  described  as  being  "  stuck  full  with 
silver  pins ;"  and  the  inventories  of 
the  wardrobes  of  princes  and  nobles 
exceed  all  our  previous  ideas  of  splen- 
did dresses.  The  costume  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII.  derived  many  of  its 
characteristics  from  the  Germans  and 
from  the  Flemings.  The  figures  on 
our  engravings  appear  to  represent  the 
German  costume  of  the  beginning:  0f 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  are  taken 
from  a  tapestry  of  that  period  belong- 
ing to  a  dealer  in  Paris,  and  at  present 
suspended  in  the  church  of  St.  Ger- 
h)  main  l'Auxerrois  in  that  capital.  We 
believe  that  the  subject  of  the  tapestry 
consists  of  allegorical  representations 
of  the  seasons.  The  figures  bear  a  strong  resemblance 
to  the  English  dresses  of  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
Edward  VI. ;  but  they  differ  entirely  from  those  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII.  as  represented  in  the  illuminations 
of  the  Romance  of  the  Rose.  The  opening  of  the  cen- 
tury, in  fact,  formed  a  strongly  marked  point  of  division 
between  the  old  times  and  the  new.  One  of  the  inno- 
vations was  the  close  fitting  hose,  which  the  rich  wore 
of  silk,  with  the  upper  portion  of  the  covering  of  the 
legs  slashed,  puffed,  and  embroidered  distinctly  from  the 
lower  part.  The  men's'  shoes  were  broad  at  the  toes, 
and  frequently  slashed,  and  their  appearance  was  thus 
far  from  elegant.  The  lower  part  of  the  hose  was  open, 
separate  from  the  upper,  and  attached  to  it  by  buttons 
or  strings,  and  the  final  separation  gave  origin  to  the 
later  distinct  articles  of  apparel,  stockings  and  knee- 
breeches,  the  upper  part  of  the  hose  having  been  con- 
founded with  the  doublet.     The  ladies  as  well  as  the 


men  wore  jackets,  as  is  the  case  in  our  picture.  The  sleeves  were  also  very 
richly  adorned,  and  were  in  general  separate  articles  of  clothing,  attached  to 
the  shoulders  of  the  vest,  in  both  sexes.  A  cap  similar  to  that  in  our  picture 
was  worn  by  bluff  King  Hal.  The  wardrobe  of  a  gentleman  was  in  general 
particularly  rich  in  "  pairs  of  sleeves." 

In  the  earlier  ages  the  subjects  represented  on  Tapestries  were  generally 
taken  from  the  numerous  romances  then  in  vogue,  or  from  history,  or  (very 
frequently,  particularly  in  the  palaces  of  the  ecclesiastics)  from  Scripture. 
A  number  of  such  subjects  of  different  kinds,  formerly  existing  on  tapestries  in 
England,  are  enumerated  in  Warton's  History  of  English  Poetry  (last  edit, 
vol.  i.  p.  203).  Some  such  designs  will  be  seen  in  the  large  work  on 
Tapestries  by  M.  Achille  Jubinal.  In  the  fifteenth  century  had  arisen  a  great 
taste  for  allegorical  poems  and  representations,  which  now  made  their  appear- 
ance on  the  tapestries.  In  a  manuscript  copy  of  some  of  Lydgate's  poems,  in 
the  Library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  one  of  the  poems  has  the  title, 
"  Loo,  sirs,  the  devise  of  a  peynted  or  desteyned  clothe  for  an  halle,  a  parlour, 
or  a  chaumbre,  devysed  by  Johan  Lidegate,  at  the  request  of  a  worthy  citesyn 
of  London."  The  poem  consists  of  speeches  to  be  put  in  the  mouths  of  the 
principal  figures,  which  were  two  allegorical  beasts  named  Bycorne  and 
Chichevache,  the  former  of  which  eat  good  men  and  the  latter  good  women, 
and  the  point  of  the  legend  consisted  in  making  Bycorne  very  fat  and  Chiche- 
vache equally  lean.  The  figures  in  our  plate  appear  to  represent  maskers  ; 
they  generally  carried  torches.  Hall  the  Chronicler,  describing  the  festivities 
at  the  court  at  Greenwich  in  1512,  says,  "  After  the  banket  doone,  these 
maskers  came  in,  with  six  gentlemen  disguised  in  silke,  bearing  staffe-tordies, 
and  desired  the  ladies  to  danse ;  some  were  content,  and  some  refused ;  and 
after  they  had  dansed  and  communed  togither,  as  the  fashion  of  the  maske  is, 
they  tooke  their  leave  and  departed."  This  is  almost  a  literal  description  of 
the  picture  before  us. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  foregoing  page  is  taken  from  an  edition  of  the  French 
Life  of  Duguesclin  (the  celebrated  hero  of  the  French  wars  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  the  opponent  of  the  Black  Prince),  printed  at  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  also  found  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Mer  des 
Hystoires.  It  is  remarkably  fanciful  and  elegant.  The  other  cut  represents 
a  sack  or  bag  of  the  same  pei-iod,  from  a  very  splendid  tapestry  preserved  in 
the  Treasury  of  the  Cathedral  of  Sens. 


HEAD-DRESSES. 

LEGANCE  and  gracefulness,  which  had  seldom 
exhibited  themselves  in  the  horned  and  peaked 
head-dresses  of  the  ladies  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
began  again  to  show  themselves  in  the  various  head- 
dresses of  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth.  This  was 
more  especially  visible  in  France,  which  country, 
then  as  now,  took  the  lead  in  the  fashions  of  dress. 
But  even  in  England,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
many  of  the  forms  of  female  costume  bore  a  close 
resemblance  to  those  which  are  continually  re-producing  themselves  in  the 
modes  of  the  present  day. 

The  two  first  heads,  and  the  fourth,  in  our  plate,  are  taken  from  a  manu- 
script on  vellum,  now  preserved  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris  (fonds  Laval- 
liere,  No.  44,  olim  No.  4316).  This  book,  written  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  consists  chiefly  of  proverbs,  adages,  and  similar  matter, 
among  which  are  a  series  of  imaginary  portraits  of  celebrated  ladies  of  ancient 
history  or  fable,  drawn  in  sepia,  and'  represented  in  the  costume  of  that  age, 
under  the  names  "  Hypponne,  Penelope,  Lucrece,  Claudie,  Semiramis,  Ceres, 
Porcie  Romaine."  With  each  of  these  heads  is  a  brief  character  in  French 
prose  of  the  personage  represented.  The  three  here  given  are  distinguished  by 
the  names  of  Lucretia,  Penelope,  Hipponne.  The  inscription  over  the  head 
of  the  latter  personage  will  serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  rest. — 

Hypponne,  la  chaste  Grecque,  fut  si  vertueuse  et  constante,  que  pour  garder  sa  virginite, 
ainsi  qu'elle  fut  prinse  sur  mer  et  illec  enclose  dedens  ungne  navire  de  ses  ennemis,  voyant 
qu'ils  vouloient  faire  effort  de  la  violler,  elle  soubdainement,  pour  esviter  leur  dampnable 
entreprise,  se  lanca  et  gesta  en  la  mer,  et  ainsi  mourut.  Le  semblable  fit  Britonne  de  Crete, 
pour  se  que  Mina  roy  de  la  province  la  vouloit  violer  et  prandre  par  force. 

Beneath  the  figure  is  the  following  distich, — 

"  Hippo  se  gesta  en  la  mer, 
Pour  sa  virginite  garder." 

The  caul,  under  which  the  hair  is  gathered  in  the  two  first  of  these  figures, 
is  frequently  mentioned  as  an  article  of  attire  in  England  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII. ;  whose  queen,  Elizabeth  of  York,  according  to  the  authority  in 
Leland,  at  her  coronation,  wore  her  hair  hanging  down  her  back  with  "a 
calle  of  pipes  over  it."  The  band  on  the  fourth  head,  running  round  the 
temples,  and  ornamented  with  jewellery,  appears  to  be  the  '  templette,'  spoke 
of  by  Olivier  de  la  Marche,  in  his  Parement  ou  Triomphe  des  Dames. 

The  third  figure  on  this  plate,  is  said  to  be  a  portrait  of  Anne  of  Bretagne, 


the  wife  of  Francis  I.  of  France,  who  reigned  from  1515  to  1547.  Willemin, 
however,  thinks  it  more  probable  that  it  was  intended  for  Francis's  first  wife, 
the  beautiful  Claude  de  France. 

The  initial  letter  is  taken  from  the  early  edition  of  Pliny,  which  has 
furnished  us  with  one  or  two  others. 

The  wood-cut  below,  taken  from  an  illuminated  MS.  written  in  the  fifteenth 
century  and  now  preserved  in  the  valuable  and  extensive  library  of  the 
Arsenal,  at  Paris,  represents  some  kind  of  religious  or  household  vessel.  It 
has  been  supposed  to  be  a  cibory  or  reliquary,  in  which  were  placed  the  sacred 
relics,  and  which  sometimes  was  used  for  the  same  purpose  as  the  pix.  The 
ornamental  mounting  is  gilt,  while  the  cup  itself  appears  to  be  of  glass. 


SAINT  AGNES. 


GNES  holds  a  high  rank  among-  the  saints  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  calendar,  not  less  for  her  chas- 
tity and  fortitude,  than  for  the  extreme  youth  at 
which  she  is  said  to  have  embraced  the  christian 
faith,  and  suffered  martyrdom  for  her  attachment 
to  it.  The  outline  of  her  story  seems  to  rest  upon 
good  authority,  but  the  details  of  her  legend  are 
of  very  doubtful  authenticity.  She  was  a  Roman 
virgin,  and  was  only  thirteen  years  of  age  at  the 
time  of  her  death,  in  304  or  305,  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  sanguinary 
persecution  of  Dioclesian.  Her  extreme  beauty  had  attracted  the  attention 
of  one  of  the  persecutors  ;  and,  on  her  refusal  to  countenance  his  proposals, 
he  denounced  her  as  a  christian.  After  having  been  exposed  to  every  species 
of  brutal  insult,  she  was  beheaded  by  the  common  executioner.  Her  festival, 
the  anniversary  of  her  martyrdom, is  held  on  the  21st  of  January ;  and  it 
was,  in  popish  times,  held  as  a  holiday  for  the  women  in  England. 

The  figure  of  this  saint  is  copied  from  a  painting  by  Lucas  Van  Leyden, 
the  friend  of  Albert  Durer.  The  original  painting  forms  the  central  pannel 
of  a  large  triptich,  which  was  formerly  in  the  palace  of  Schleisheim,  but  has 
been  latterly  removed  to  the  Royal  Gallery  at  Munich.  Lucas  Van  Leyden, 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Dutch  painters  of  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  who  Mas  famous  for  the  precocity  of  his  genius,  died 
in  1533,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-nine,  leaving  behind  him  a  great  number 
of  paintings  and  engravings,  for  he  excelled  in  both  branches  of  the  art.  The 
saint  is  remarkable  for  the  richness  of  her  dress,  which,  with  the  hangings 


behind,  remind  us  rather  of  the  magnificence  and  splendour  of  the  days  of 
papal  rule,  than  of  the  simplicity  of  the  primitive  ages.  Even  the  hook,  by 
the  little  we  can  see  of  the  upper  border  of  the  leaves,  seems  to  be  intended 
for  an  illuminated  missal.  Her  glove,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  age  of 
Lucas,  has  an  opening  in  the  finger  to  show  the  richness  of  the  jewel  which 
adorns  her  ring.  The  lamb,  which  the  artist  has  here  introduced,  is  intended 
to  be  emblematical  of  her  name.  The  monks  were  very  partial  to  these 
punning  explanations  of  the  names  of  their  saints,  taken  from  different 
languages  ;  and  they  failed  not  to  observe  that  the  name  of  this  virgin  martyr 
not  only  in  Greek  indicated  the  chastity  for  which  she  suffered  (ayvijc,  ayvoc, 
chaste)  ;  but  that  in  Latin  it  represented  a  lamb  (agna),  for  she  was  "humble 
and  debonayre  as  a  lambe."     (Golden  Legend). 

The  specimen  of  an  ornamental  pavement,  at  the  foot  of  the  preceding  page, 
is  taken  from  a  MS.  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris 
(No.  6851).  The  cut  at  the  foot  of  the  present  page,  representing  a  domestic 
altar,  was  furnished  by  a  MS.  of  the  Bodleian  Library,  at  Oxford. 


■    '   ■" 


V 


E-SS    ©F    IAH  CAS  TTETR.  WIFE    ©F 


CONSTANCIA  DUCHESS  OF  LANCASTER,  WIFE  OF 
JOHN  OF  GAUNT. 

MONG  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  illuminated  man- 
uscripts preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  is  the   one 
from  which  the  present  plate  is  taken,  and  which  is  con- 
sidered so  precious  that  the  leaves  have  been  separately 
mounted  and  covered  with  glass  to  save  them  from  the 
common  accidents  to  which  such  articles  are  exposed.    It 
was  purchased  recently  of  Mr.  Newton  Scott,  one  of  the 
attaches  to  the  embassy  at  Madrid,  who  bought  it  there. 
It  is  a  richly  illuminated  genealogy  relating  to  the  regal  house  of  Portugal, 
and  appears  to  have  been  executed  about  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian, 
for  a  member  of  the  royal  family  of  that  country,  who,  there  is  reason  for 
believing,  was  the  Infante  Fernando,  born  in  1507,  who  died  in  1534.     It  is 
certainly  the  work  of  Flemish  artists. 

The  figure  given  on  our  plate  is  intended  to  represent  Constancia,  the 


second  wife  of  John  of  Gaunt  Duke  of  Lancaster.  The  horned  head-dress, 
and  other  parts  of  her  costume,  are  hardly  that  of  the  period  at  which  it  was 
painted,  hut  were  perhaps  copied  from  an  older  picture.  Over  the  lady's  head, 
in  the  original,  is  a  scroll,  bearing  the  inscription, — 

iTuiliicgta  "Dona  CLonstanra  Be  JItigratctra. 

The  first  wife  of  John  of  Gaunt  was,  as  is  well  known,  Blanche  Plantagenet, 
the  great  heiress  of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster,  which  he  inherited  through  her. 
After  her  death,  he  espoused  Constancia,  elder  daughter  and  co-heiress  of 
Peter  king  of  Castile,  in  whose  right  he  assumed  the  title  of  King  of  Castile 
and  Leon,  and  was  summoned  to  parliament  by  that  title.  In  the  reign  of 
Richard  II.  he  conceived  the  idea  of  possessing  himself  by  force  of  his  distant 
kingdom,  and  invaded  Spain  with  a  fine  army.  At  Compostello,  he  was  met 
by  John  king  of  Portugal,  and  married  his  daughter  Philippa  (by  his  first 
wife)  to  that  monarch.  From  Compostella  he  marched  into  Castile  ;  but  he 
soon  laid  aside  his  projects  of  conquest,  and  he  concluded  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  prince  who  occupied  the  throne  he  claimed.  By  this  treaty  the  duke 
of  Lancaster  abandoned  all  his  claim  to  the  Spanish  crown,  in  consideration 
of  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  the  further  condition  that  Henry  prince  of  the 
Asturias  should  marry  his  only  daughter  by  his  wife  Constancia,  the  lady 
Catherine.  Thus  two  of  the  daughters  of  John  of  Gaunt  became  queens ;  and 
a  few  years  afterwards  his  son  Henry  of  Bolingbroke  ascended  the  throne  of 
England  as  Henry  IV.  After  the  death  of  Constancia,  the  duke  of  Lancaster 
made  another  and  lowlier  marriage,  his  third  wife  being  Catherine  de  Swyn- 
ford,  widow  of  Sir  Otho  de  Swynford,  and  daughter  of  Sir  Payn  Roet  or 
Green,  king  at  arms. 

The  cut  on  the  preceding  page,  representing  a  house  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
is  taken  from  one  of  the  paintings  in  the  Traite  des  Tournois  of  King  Rene, 
which  has  furnished  two  plates  to  the  present  work.  The  banners  and  blazons 
of  the  chief  lords  of  the  tournament  are  displayed  at  the  windows  of  their 
lodgings. 

Our  initial  letter  is  taken  from  an  illuminated  missal,  in  the  possession  of 
F.  A.  Beck,  Esq. 


QUEEN  PHILIPPA. 


UR  plate,  which  is  taken  from  the  same  splendid  Portuguese 
regal  pedigree  which  has  already  furnished  us  with  the  figure 
intended  to  represent  Constancia,  the  wife  of  John  of  Gaunt, 
represents  that  prince's  eldest  daughter,  Philippa,  the  queen 
of  Joham  or  John  I.  king  of  Portugal.  She  was  married  to 
that  monarch  in  1387,  and  died  about  1415.  The  period  of 
this  international  alliance  was  one  of  the  most  splendid  in  the  annals  of  that 
country ;  and  this  and  the  next  generation  saw  most  of  those  great  discoveries 
and  conquests  which  throw  so  much  splendour  on  its  national  annals.  It 
would  seem  as  though  Queen  Philippa  had  transferred  into  the  royal  blood  of 
Portugal  a  portion  of  the  enterprising  spirit  of  her  own  countrymen.  She  bore 
King  John  eight  children,  of  whom  the  eldest,  Alfonso,  died  young,  and  the 
second  (named  Edward  in  honour 
of  his  great-grandfather  King  Ed- 
ward III.  of  England)  succeeded 
to  his  father's  throne.  The  third 
son,  Peter  duke  of  Coimbra,  was 
distinguished  by  his  love  of  science 
and  travelling  ;  he  visited  different 
parts  of  Africa  and  eastern  Europe, 
and  even  some  of  the  remotest 
countries  of  Asia ;  and  when,  after 
a  long  absence,  he  returned  to  Por- 
tugal, it  is  said  that  his  countrymen 
looked  upon  his  reappearance  as 
miraculous,  and  supposed  that  he 
had  dropped  down  from  heaven. 
The  fourth  son,  Henry  duke  of 
Visco,  was  a  great  navigator,  and 
made  many  discoveries  and  con- 
quests on  the  distant  coasts  of 
Africa.  The  other  children  were, 
John,  Ferdinand,  Blanche,  and 
Isabella,  of  whom  the  latter  was 
married  to  Philip  the  Good,  duke 
of  Burgundy. 

The  coat  of  arms  in  the  present 
page,  is  that  of  the  prince  for 
whom  the  manuscript  which  fur- 


nished  our  engraving  was  originally  made.  It  is  remarkable  for  its  elegant 
ornaments. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  foregoing  page  is  taken  from  an  early  printed  book. 

The  cut  below  represents  a  pixis  ad  oblatas,  or  vessel  for  the  reception  of 
the  wafers  before  their  consecration,  and  is  taken  from  a  picture  of  the 
Adoration  of  the  Magi,  in  the  Louvre  at  Paris. 


ft 


fe 

fe 


i 


QUEEN  LEONORA  OF  ARRAGON,  KING  JOHN  OF 

PORTUGAL,  AND  QUEEN  JOHANNA 

OF  CASTILE. 


ONTINUING  our  selections  from  the 
beautiful  series  of  genealogical  illumina- 
tions,  we  give  three  royal  figures  which 
present  good  specimens  of  the  costume, 
and  particularly  of  the  head-dresses,  of  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
these  illuminations  were  executed.  In 
England  the  hats  worn  at  this  period  by 
men  varied  much  in  shape  and  character, 
but  we  have  examples  of  nearly  the  same 
form  as  that  given  to  King  John  of  Portugal. 
The  costume  of  the  two  queens  is  much 
in  the  same  style  as  that  represented  in  our  plate  of  Head  Dresses  of  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Queen  Johanna  appears  to  hold  a  kind 
of  fan  in  her  hand. 

Our  wood-cut  is  taken  from  an  interesting  series  of  drawings  executed  by 
the  celebrated  antiquary  John  Rouse  of  Warwick,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  preserved  in  MS.  Cotton.  Julius  E.  IV.  We  have 
already  given  some  figures  drawn  by  the  same  person  from  a  pictorial  gene- 
alogy in  the  College  of  Arms :  but  the  drawings  of  the  Cottonian  manuscript 
are  executed  in  a  superior  style.  Strutt  has  given  bad  copies  of  them  in  his 
large  work  on  English  costume.  They  illustrate  the  romantic  adventures  of 
Richard  de  Beauchamp  earl  of  Warwick. 

Richard  de  Beauchamp  was  one  of  the  most  chivalrous  knights  of  the  reigns 
of  Henry  IV.  and  V.  In  his  younger  days  he  distinguished  himself  against 
the  Welsh,  and  was  made  a  knight  of  the  garter  after  the  memorable  battle  of 
Shrewsbury.  In  1408  (when  twenty-seven  years  of  age),  he  set  out  on  a 
journey  to  the  Holy  Land.  When  he  entered  Lombardy,  on  his  way  thither,  he 
was  met  by  a  herald  of  Sir  Pandulf  Malacet,  who  had  heard  of  his  fame,  and 
who  challenged  him  to  certain  feats  of  arms  with  him  at  Verona  for  the  order  of 
the  garter,  in  the  presence  of  Sir  Galaot  of  Mantua.  Richard  de  Beauchamp 
accepted  the  challenge,  and,  having  first  visited  Rome  to  perform  his  pilgrimage 
there,  he  returned  to  Verona,  where  he  and  his  challenger  were,  on  a  tlay 
assigned,  first  to  just  with  spears,  next  to  fight  with  axes,  then  with  arming 
swords,  and  finally  with  sharp  daggers.  Our  cut  represents  the  combat  with 
axes,  and  gives  an  accurate  idea  of  the  armour  of  the  time,  and  of  the  mode  of 
using  those  formidable  weapons.     It  is  taken  from  the  drawing  (fol.  207,  V.) 


which  represents — "  Howe  atte  place  and  clay  assigned,  resortyng  thidre  all 
the  contre,  sir  Pandolf  entred  the  place,  ix.  speres  born  before  hym.  Then 
thacte  of  speres  to  therle  Richard  vvorshipfully  finisshed,  after  went  they 
togedre  with  axes,  and  if  the  lorde  Galaot  hadde  nat  the  sonner  cried  peas, 
sir  Pandolf  sore  wounded  on  the  lift  shuldre  hadde  been  utterly  slayne  in  the 
felde."  In  the  porter's  lodge  at  Warwick  castle  there  is  preserved  the  head 
and  upper  part  of  an  axe,  which  bears  so  much  resemblance  to  those  here 
represented,  that  one  might  fairly  conjecture  that  it  had  been  wielded  by  Earl 
Richard. 

The  Earl  Richard  subsequently  continued  his  journey  to  Jerusalem,  where 
he  made  his  offerings  at  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  After  his  return,  he  increased  his 
fame  by  the  valour  he  displayed  in  several  encounters  similar  to  that  related 
above  ;  and  it  is  said  that,  when  attending  the  English  prelates  at  the  council 
of  Constance,  he  slew  "a  great  duke"  in  justing.  He  displayed  great  courage 
and  activity  in  the  French  wars  of  Henry  V.  who  made  him  governor  of  the 
castle  of  Caen ;  and  afterwards,  by  his  will,  appointed  him  guardian  of  his 
infant  son  Henry  VI.  This  latter  monarch  appointed  him  lieutenant  general 
of  the  whole  realm  of  France  and  duchy  of  Normandy,  on  the  death  of  the 
duke  of  Bedford ;  and  he  died  in  the  enjoyment  of  that  title  at  the  castle  of 
Rouen,  April  30,  1439.  His  stately  monument  still  remains  in  the  chapel 
founded  by  him  on  the  south  side  of  the  collegiate  church  of  St.  Mary,  at 
Warwick. 


t 


FRANCIS  THE  FIRST,  KING  OF  FRANCE. 


Y  his  contemporaries,  no  less  than  by  the  historians  of 
subsequent  times,  a  place  among  the  greater  monarchs 
who  have  contributed  to  the  civilization  of  mankind  has 
been  accorded  to  Francis  the  first.  As  the  patron  of 
science  and  literature,  or  as  the  brave  warrior  (the 
companion  of  Bayard  the  "preux  chevalier")  he  com- 
mands equally  our  respect.  The  age  in  which  he  lived 
saw  the  establishment  of  the  Reformation,  and  the 
Revival  of  Letters. 

Francis  was  born  in  14Q4,  and,  in  his  youth,  showed  equal  ardour  in  the 
pursuit  of  study  and  in  the  practice  of  martial  and  manly  exercises.  At  an 
early  age  he  frequented  the  tournaments  which  were  then  so  much  in  fashion, 
and  frequently  carried  off  the  prize.  He  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  France 
when  he  had  scarcely  reached  the  age  of  manhood,  and  immediately  found 
himself  involved  in  the  Italian  war  which  had  been  excited  under  his  father-in- 
law  Louis  XII.  His  arms  made  rapid  progress  in  Italy,  and  his  valour  in  the 
obstinate  battle  of  Marignan  covered  him  with  glory.  The  magnificence  exhi- 
bited at  his  celebrated  interview  with  Henry  VIII.,  in  the  camp  of  the  Cloth 
of  Gold,  forms  one  of  the  brilliant  episodes  of  English  history.  In  1521,  he 
became  involved  in  the  fatal  war  with  Charles  V.,  which  ended  in  his  defeat 
and  capture  at  the  battle  of  Pavia.  After  a  long  and  cruel  captivity,  he 
regained  his  throne,  and  subsequently  turned  his  thoughts  almost  entirely  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  arts  and  elegancies  of  peace,  although  he  was  in  his  latter 
years  again  involved  in  war  with  Charles  V.  Francis  died,  after  a  reign  of 
thirty-two  years,  on  the  last  day  of  March,  1547. 

Few  monarchs  have  been  so  distinguished  by  their  avidity  for  knowledge 
and  instruction  as  Francis  I.  He  spent  an  immense  sum  of  money  in  collecting 
manuscripts  from  Italy  and  Greece,  and  was  in  frequent  correspondence  with 
the  most  learned  men  of  his  age.  It  was  he  who  first  introduced  into  France 
a  taste  for  the  study  of  natural  history,  which  has  since  been  followed  with  so 
much  success  among  his  countrymen.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  College 
Royal,  and  contributed  in  many  other  ways  to  the  extension  of  sound  instruc- 
tion among  his  countrymen.  He  showed  his  taste  for  poetry  and  literature 
of  a  lighter  and  gayer  character,  by  patronizing  such  men  as  Clement  Marot 
and  Rabelais.  The  queen  of  Navarre,  Marguerite,  so  well  known  by  her 
Tales,  was  his  sister.  Francis  bought,  at  high  prices,  foreign  paintings  to 
enrich  his  palaces,  and  at  the  same  time  used  his  utmost  endeavours  to  encou- 
rage native  art.  The  famous  Bcnvenuto  Cellini  was  employed  at  his  court. 
It  was  this  prince  who  began  the  Louvre  :  and  he  built  Fontainebleau,  and 


other  noble  palaces.  Yet  in  spite  of  all  his  genius  and  liberality,  it  was  in  his 
reign  that  those  cruel  persecutions  of  the  protestants  began,  which  were  con- 
tinued with  so  much  barbarity  under  his  immediate  successors. 

Our  engraving  is  taken  from  an  original  painting,  said  to  be  by  Janet, 
now  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Henry  Farrer. 

The  initial  letter  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  article  is  taken  from  a 
beautifully  illuminated  missal,  sold  at  the  Strawberry  Hill  sale. 

The  cut  below  is  taken  from  a  painting  by  Holbein,  preserved  in  the  collec- 
tion at  the  Louvre,  in  Paris.  It  represents  part  of  an  ornamental  girdle  or 
belt,  and  shows  the  manner  in  which  the  purse  and  dagger  were  suspended  in 
the  earlier  part  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


THE  EARL  OF  SURREY. 


UAINTNESS  of  conceit  and  expression  was  the 
peculiar  characteristic  of  the  poetry  of  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  change 
which  subsequently  took  place,  and  which  was 
perfected  in  Spenser  and  Shakespeare,  had 
its  commencement  in  Surrey  and  Wyat. 
Amid  the  heap  of  doggerel  verses  composed 
/luring  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  we  are 
surprised  at  the  delicacy  and  beauty  of  the 
productions  of  these  two  poets.  It  was  the 
second  and  permanent  importation  of  the  in- 
fluence of  Italian  taste. 

The  Earl  of  Surrey,  one  of  the  first  of 
England's  noble  poets,  and  (with  Sir  Thomas  Wyat)  one  of  her  first  two 
sonnetteers,  is  supposed  to  have  been  born  soon  after  the  year  1516.  In  his 
youth  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  talents  and  accomplishments,  both  literary 
and  military ;  but  he  was  proud  and  headstrong,  and  his  imprudence  not 
unfrequently  brought  him  into  disgrace.  In  1542,  a  few  months  after  he  had 
been  elected  a  knight  of  the  Garter,  we  find  him  imprisoned  in  the  Fleet,  for 
a  quarrel  with  a  gentleman  named  John  a  Leigh.  It  was,  in  this  age,  the 
fashion  for  the  young  nobles  and  gentry  to  despise  the  wealthy  merchants  of 
London ;  and  we  find  both  Surrey  and  the  younger  Wyat  called  before  the 
council  in  1543  (very  soon  after  Surrey  had  escaped  from  the  Fleet),  for 
having  walked  about  the  streets  of  the  city  at  night  in  a  "  lewd  and  unseemly 
manner,"  and  broke  the  citizen's  windows  with  stones  thrown  from  a  bow. 
He  was  again  committed  to  prison,  where  he  indulged  his  spleen  against  the 
Londoners,  by  writing  a  satire  on  the  vices  which  he  at  least  attributes  to 
them,  and  he  rather  ridiculously  pretends  that  he  broke  their  windows  in 
order  to  warn  them  of  their  sins  : — 


"  In  secret  silence  of  the  night 

This  made  me,  with  a  reckless  breast, 

To  wake  thy  sluggards  with  my  bow : 

A  figure  of  the  Lord's  behest ; 

Whose  scourge  for  sin  the  scriptures  shew. 

That  as  the  fearful  thunder's  clap 

By  sudden  flame  at  hand  we  know ; 

Of  pebble  stones  the  soundless  rap, 

The  dreadful  plague  might  make  thee  see 

Of  God's  wrath,  that  cloth  thee  enwrap," 


After  his  second  release  he  went  over  to  the  army  in  France,  to  serve  under 
Sir  John  Wallop.  In  1544  he  again  served  in  the  war  in  France,  under  his 
father,  the  duke  of  Norfolk,  when  he  was  appointed  marshal  of  the  army.  In 
1545  he  was  appointed  commander  of  Boulogne,  and  there  distinguished  him- 
self by  his  vigour  and  courage ;  but  having  been  defeated  in  an  engagement 
with  the  French,  he  seems  to  have  sunk  in  the  king's  favour,  and  he  was 
shortly  afterwards  recalled  and  superseded  by  the  earl  of  Hertford.  After 
his  return  to  England,  he  irritated  his  enemies  by  the  frequency  of  his  expres- 
sions of  discontent;  and  early  in  1547  he  was  imprisoned  at  Windsor  for 
something  which  he  had  said  against  the  Earl  of  Hertford.  At  the  end  of  the 
same  year,  the  king  being  desirous  to  get  rid  of  the  Howards,  the  earl  of 
Surrey  was  committed  to  the  Tower  on  a  charge  of  high  treason,  and  he  was 
soon  followed  by  his  father.  The  chief  article  of  accusation  was  a  pretended 
assumption  of  the  royal  arms.  Both  father  and  son  were  condemned  to  lose 
their  heads ;  Surrey  was  executed  on  the  21st  of  January,  and  the  life  of 
the  duke  was  only  saved  by  the  death  of  the  king.  The  eaid  of  Surrey  was 
only  thirty  years  of  age,  when  he  was  thus  untimely  cut  off. 

Our  portrait  of  this  talented  nobleman  is  taken  from  a  fine  painting  by 
Holbein,  preserved  in  the  palace  of  Hampton  Court. 

The  engraving  on  the  present  page  represents  a  Knife,  Spoon,  and  Fork, 
of  ivory,  from  the  collection  in  the  Louvre,  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


%5r 


THE  PRINCESS  ELIZABETH. 

FROM  A  PICTURE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT. 


fie  picture  fierc  set  Boron 
toitbin  tines  letter  Z., 

ariofit  Both  sbero  tfjc  forme  anB 
sbap 
of  lEbatlton  unto  tbe. 

JKHbcn  bee  in  pleasaunt  roise 
tbe  countctfet  erpreste 

2Df  clotone,  toitfi  tote  of  russet  hero, 
anB  stuttups  roitb  tfic  reste. 

StHfioe  mcrrp  manj>  maBc, 

roben  be  appcarB  in  siejln ; 

Cbe  cjrat>e  anB  roise  as  rocli  as 
ruBe 

at  bim  BiB  ta&c  Belicfit, 

Cfie  partie  notoc  is  cone, 
anB  tloslie  claB  in  clape ; 

2Df  all  tf>e  jesters  in  tfje  lanBe 
i>t  bare  tijc  praise  aroaie. 

/2oro  hatb  fie  plaiB  fiis  parte  ; 

anB  sure  be  is  of  tfiis, 
3If  fie  in  Cbristc  BiB  Bie,  to  line 

roitfi  fiim  in  lastine  blis. 

Such  are  the  lines  which,  in  the  manuscript  from  which  we  have  taken  it  (MS. 
HaiT.  No.  3885.)  accompany  our  initial  letter.  There  is  every  reason  for 
believing  that  it  is  an  accurate  portrait  of  this  celebrated  actor  ;  we  know  from 
contemporary  sources,  that  Tarlton  was  remarkable  for  his  flat  nose  and  the 
"  squint  of  his  eyes,"  which  are  exhibited  in  the  picture.  The  part  which 
Tarlton  acted  with  most  success  on  the  stage,  was  that  of  the  clown,  and  he 
excelled  especially  in  the  "jig,"  a  sort  of  humorous  performance  consisting  of 
singing  and  recitation,  accompanied  by  the  sound  of  the  pipe  and  tabor.  A 
work  published  soon  after  his  death,  describes  him  when  on  the  stage  in  nearly 
the  same  words  as  the  verses  given  above,  and  in  the  costume  represented  in 
his  picture : — "  in  russet,  with  a  buttond  cap  on  his  head,  a  great  bag  by  his 
side,  and  a  strong  bat  in  his  hand,  artificially  attired  for  a  clowne."  Mr. 
Payne  Collier,  in  his  Bibliographical  Catalogue  of  the  Library  at  Bridgewater 
House,  p.  300,  has  shown  from  "  a  scene  in  the  old  play  of  '  The  Three  Lords 
and  Three  Ladies  of  London,'  1590,  4to.  that  an  engraving  of  Tarlton,  doubtless 


on  wood,  was  then  current,  and  what  is  above  given  is  very  possibly,  if  not 
probably,  a  copy  of  the  old  print."  We  are  able  to  confirm  Mr.  Collier's 
conjecture  ;  for  we  have  seen,  we  believe  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum  at  Oxford, 
an  old  wood-cut  of  Tarlton,  closely  resembling  the  above,  printed  with  a  black- 
letter  ballad.  The  volume  from  which  our  drawing  is  taken  consists  of  an 
alpbabet  of  ornamental  letters,  drawn  in  the  latter  years  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
probably  very  soon  after  Tarlton's  death,  which  occurred  in  the  year  1588,  a 
little  more  than  a  month  after  the  defeat  of  the  famous  Spanish  Armada. 
Many  of  these  letters  are  remarkably  bold  and  fantastic  ;  but  in  general  they 
are  not  accompanied  with  drawings,  like  tbis  of  Tarlton,  or  with  verses.  The 
presence  of  these  adjuncts  in  the  case  of  the  letter  T,  show  the  great  reputation 
of  Tarlton's  name  at  the  period  when  the  manuscript  was  executed,  and  this  is 
confirmed  by  the  numerous  allusions  to  him  in  popular  publications  for  some 
years  afterwards.  Tarlton  is  known  as  a  writer  of  ballads,  as  well  as  an  actor. 
His  ballads  were  probably  composed  before  he  became  famous  on  the  stage. 
A  specimen  is  given  in  Mr.  Collier's  "  Old  Ballads,"  p.  78,  which  is  written 
just  in  the  same  kind  of  doggrell  as  the  lines  which  accompany  our  initial 
letter. 

Tarlton  was,  although  in  a  low  station,  one  of  the  remarkable  personages  of 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the  age  in  which  our  stage,  properly  so  called,  took 
its  rise.  The  peculiar  character  in  which  he  shone,  seemed  to  give  him  some 
claim  to  adorn  the  description  of  a  picture  representing  that  great  princess  in 
her  childhood.  Our  plate  is  taken  from  an  elaborately  finished  portrait,  by 
Holbein,  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  when  in  her  twelfth  year,  The  original  is 
placed  in  the  "  Queen's  Gallery"  at  Hampton  Court.  It  was  drawn,  according 
to  the  statement  of  the  age  of  the  princess,  in  the  year  1 545,  the  same  in  which 
James  V.  of  Scotland  died  broken-hearted  on  account  of  his  defeat  by  the 
English  at  Solway  Moss,  and  left  his  infant  daughter  Mary,  her  future  rival, 
an  orphan.  It  was  in  many  other  respects  a  critical  period ;  for  this  year 
may  be  considered  the  one  in  which  the  Reformation  in  England  was  finally 
determined.  At  the  accession  of  her  sister  Mary  to -the  throne  of  England, 
Elizabeth  had  reached  her  twentieth  year  ;  during  the  greater  part  of  Mary's 
reign  she  was  virtually  a  prisoner,  and  only  obtained  her  freedom  with  her 
crown.  There  can,  indeed,  be  little  doubt  that  her  life  was  in  danger  during 
this  period.  A  youth  of  troubles  and  perils  contributed,  perhaps,  not  a  little 
towards  forming  that  masculine  greatness  of  character  which  afterwards  dis- 
tinguished the  Virgin  Queen. 


PART  OF  A  ROOM,  FROM  A  PICTURE  BY  JOHN 

SCHOREEL. 


IKE  many  of  the  artists  who  were  contemporary 
with  him,  John  Schoreel  was  distinguished  chiefly 
by  his  paintings  of  pious  or  religious  subjects. 
He  took  his  name  from  a  village  near  Alkmaer, 
where  he  was  born  in  1493 ;  and  after  passing 
a  roving  life  full  of  adventures, — for  he  travelled 
over  a  great  part  of  Europe,  and  even  to  Jeru- 
salem, to  find  opportunities  of  perfecting  himself 
in  his  art,— he  died  in  1560,  leaving  behind  him  a  great  number  of  paintings. 
Many  of  them,  unfortunately,  were  destroyed  in  the  troubles  which  desolated 
the  Low  Countries  during  the  sixteenth  century.  Schoreel  justly  claims  a 
place  among  the  first  of  the  early  Dutch  painters. 

Our  plate  is  made  up  from  a  fine  picture  by  this  artist,  formerly  in  the 
noble  coUection  of  paintings  at  the  King  of  Bavaria's  palace  at  Schleissheim, 
but  since  removed  to  the  Gallery  at  Munich,  which  represents  the  Death 
of  the  Virgin.     The  parts  introduced  here  are  intended  to  give  an  idea  of 
the  interior  of  a  room  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,   and  of 
some  of  the  principal  religious  utensils  then  in  use.    The  brush  leaning  against 
the  wall  was  used  for  sprinkling  holy-water,  and  was  called  an  aspersorium, 
or  sprinkler.     In  an  illumination   in    MS.   Harl.   2897,   of  the  end   of  the 
fourteenth  century,  we  see  the  bishop  using  this  utensil  in  the  consecration  of 
a  church.     In  our  picture,  the  little  vase  near  the  sprinkler  is  the  hohj-water 
vat,  a  name  which  explains  sufficiently  its  use.     The  book  lying  open  on  the 
table  is  a  Psalter.     The  long  hanging  cover  of  this  book,  called   a  forrel 
(forrellum),  was  generally  made  of  leather,  and  not  only  served  to  protect  the 
book  itself  from  injury,  but  when  closed  people  might  carry  it  by  taking  in 
their  hands  the  ball  at  the  extremity.     The  string  of  beads  is  a  rosary.     Over 
the  cupboard,   and  hanging  behind  the  candlesticks,  stands  a  fulding-altar- 
tablc,  represented  here  as  shut,  but  which,  if  unfolded,  would  offer  three  com- 
partments,  each  with  a  picture.     The  ornaments  above  the  recess  in  the 
corner,  as  well  as  other  details  in  parts  of  the  original  painting  not  introduced 
here,  exhibit  that  remarkable  style  named  the  renaissance,  which  intervened 
between  the  old  gothic  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  purer  classic  introduced  at 
a  later  period.     The  round  glazing  of  the  windows  is  also  worthy  of  notice  ; 


and  at  the  present  day  is  not  unfrequently  found  in  houses  in  some  of  the  older 
towns  in  the  Netherlands  and  Germany. 

The  cut  at  the  end  of  this  notice  represents  a  very  elegant  design  for  a 
saltsellar,  engraved  in  1G45  hy  Hollar  after  a  drawing  by  Holbein.  The 
names  of  both  these  artists  are  peculiarly  interwoven  with  the  history  of  art  in 
England.  Both  of  them  died  at  London.  Holbein,  as  is  well  known,  was 
long  the  favourite  painter  at  the  court  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  his  paintings 
grace  many  of  our  native  collections.  Besides  painting  portraits  of  many 
members  of  the  English  nobility,  and  a  variety  of  other  subjects  then  in 
fashion,  he  appears,  like  his  contemporary,  Albert  Durer,  to  have  furnished 
designs  for  ornamental  plate  and  furniture,  and  some  of  his  pieces  of  this  class 
were  preserved  in  the  seventeenth  century,  when  they  gave  employment  to 
the  graver  of  Hollar.  The  latter  was  a  less  fortunate  adventurer :  he  came 
to  England  to  live  in  poverty,  and  to  be  dependent  upon  the  generosity  of  the 
booksellers,  who  then  were  not  very  capable  of  appreciating  engravings,  and 
who  therefore  set  no  great  value  upon  them.  Holbein  died  of  the  plague  in 
1554 :  Hollar,  in  old  age  and  distress,  in  1677. 


^ 


DAGGER  AND  SWORD. 


URING  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century  and  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth, 
the  elegance  which  entered  into  every 
branch  of  art  was  especially  conspicu- 
ous in  the  arms  and  armour  of  princes. 
The  accompanying  plate  represents  the 
ornamental  parts  of  a  superb  dagger  and 
of  a  sword,  both  designed  by  Holbein, 
and  therefore  of  the  earlier  part  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

The  cut  at  the  side  of  the  page  represents  a  glaive  and  that  at 
the  foot  of  the  next  a  catch-pole,  drawn  from  the  original  weapons 
now  preserved  in  the  Little  Armoury  in  the  Tower  of  London.  The 
glaive  (in  Low-Latin  glaivus,  glavius,  glavea,  &c.)  was  a  weapon  of 
very  common  use  during  the  middle-ages,  and  is  mentioned  in 
contemporary  historians  in  describing  the  wars  in  different  parts 
of  Europe  at  different  periods.  The  origin  of  the  low  Latin  forms 
was  the  old  French  word  for  this  instrument,  glaives,  or  gleves, 
which  again  was  itself  formed  from  the  purer  Latin  gladius.  Sir 
Samuel  Meyrick  is  certainly  wrong  in  deriving  the  name  "from 
the  Welsh  word  cleddi/v,  or  gleddyv,  a  sword."  The  Welsh  word 
itself  is  only  a  derivation  from  the  Latin,  and  probably  through  the 
Anglo-Norman,  to  judge  by  its  form.  At  a  later  period  considerable 
manufactories  of  these  weapons  were  established  in  Wales,  and  we 
often  read  of  Welsh  glaives.  The  glaive  consisted  of  a  long  cutting 
blade,  placed  at  the  end  of  a  staff.  A  passage  in  the  Anglo- 
Norman  romance  of  Guy  of  Warwick  (which  was  written  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  II.)  describes  the  efficiency  of  these  weapons  in 
battle  ;  the  warriors  give  each  other — 


"  Grant  coupes  de  gleves  trenchant ; 
Les  escus  ne  lur  vailut  un  gans." 

"  Great  blows  with  sharp  glaives ; 

Their  shields  were  not  worth  a  glove  to  them.' 


In  our  cut  we  have  only  given  the  blade  and  the  upper  and  lower 
parts  of  the  staff.  The  former  which  is  engraved  with  figured  orna- 
ments, is  two  feet  four  and  a  half  inches  in  length.  The  staff  is 
covered  with  crimson  velvet,  with  silk  tassels,  and  studded  with  brass 
headed  nails. 


The  use  of  the  catch-pole  is  said  to  have  been  to  take  horsemen  in 
battle  by  the  neck,  and  drag  them  from  their  horses.  The  upper  part  of  the 
instrument  represented  in  the  cut  is  peculiarly  well  calculated  for  this  purpose. 
The  two  bars  in  the  middle  form  springs,  which  are  strengthened  by  the 
moveable  side-bolts.  The  person  who  held  the  staff  had  only  to  push  the 
instrument  straight  forward  against  the  man's  neck,  and  it  opened  till  the  neck 
had  passed  into  the  aperture,  and  then  closed  again ;  and  the  catch-pole  man 
could  easily  pull  the  rider,  thus  caught,  to  the  ground.  If  much  resistance  was 
made,  he  had  only  to  give  the  weapon  a  twist,  and  the  curved  spike  which  was 
placed  on  the  under  side  of  the  staff,  in  a  plane  at  right  angles  to  that  of 
the  instrument  itself,  would  pierce  his  body,  and  put  him  at  once  ho?%s  de 
combat.  The  staff  of  the  catch-pole,  which  is  between  seven  and  eight  feet 
long,  is,  like  that  of  the  glaive,  covered  with  crimson  velvet,  and  studded  with 
brass  nails.     They  are  both  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 


CLASP  OF  THE  EMPEROR  CHARLES  V. 


*4  ... 

MONG    the    numerous   rich  specimens    of   ancient 

bijouterie  which  have  been  preserved  from  the 
ravages  of  time,  we  know  of  few  more  elegant  than 
the  clasp  represented  in  our  plate,  which  is  now  in 
the  Debruge  collection  at  Paris.  It  was  made  for 
that  celebrated  monarch,  the  Emperor  Charles  V., 
the  ally  of  our  King  Henry  VIII.  against  Francis  I. 
of  France  ;  and  it  is  ornamented  with  the  figure  of 
the  Austrian  eagle.  This  jewel,  which  is  repre- 
sented in  our  engraving  of  the  size  of  the  original,  exhibits  a  mass  of  precious 
stones.  The  breast  of  the  eagle  is  covered  with  rubies ;  the  wings  are  orna- 
mented with  alternate  rubies  and  a  kind  of  gray  stone.  Pearls  hang  from 
the  tail,  beak,  and  legs.  The  head  is  covered  with  a  pearl ;  and  the  neck  and 
thighs  with  small  rubies.  The  eagle,  which  is  placed  on  a  gilt  and  ornamented 
ground,  is  enclosed  within  a  lozenge,  formed  of  a  line  of  sapphires,  pearls, 
amethysts,  and  emeralds.  The  outer  border  of  the  clasp  is  richly  adorned 
with  white,  red,  and  deep  green  enamel,  and  in  the  circuit  are  eight  names 
of  saints,  written  on  small  pieces  of  paper,  mounted  on  pink  silk,  and  each 
covered  with  a  glass.  These  names  appear  to  be  Martini,  Andreae,  Margaritas, 
Nicolai,  Sancti  Petri,  Ypoliti,  Constantii,  Laurentii. 

The  wood-cut  at  the  foot  of  the  following  page  is  taken  from  an  early 
folio  edition  of  Terence,  printed  at  Strasburg  (Argentina)  in  1496,  by  John 
Griininger.  This  volume  is  profusely  adorned  with  wood-cuts,  intended  to 
represent  the  scenes  of  the  comic  poet,  which  have  every  characteristic  of 
being  the  work  of  a  German  engraver.  The  original  of  the  cut  which  we 
give,  is  boldly  engraved  on  a  block  of  the  full  size  of  the  folio  page ;  but  it 
would  be  difficult  to  decide  who  was  the  engraver.  At  the  foot  is  printed  the 
word  theatrum.  It  is  intended  to  exhibit  the  stage  of  a  theatre ;  but  there 
is  great  room  for  doubting  whether  it  may  not  be  considered  as  a  mere 
fanciful  design  of  an  ancient  Roman  theatre,  rather  than  a  representation 
of  any  theatre  which  existed  at  the  time  it  was  engraved.  In  the  western 
and  northern  parts  of  Europe,  theatrical  exhibitions  were  still  of  a  very  rude 
character,  and  may  be  divided  into  the  two  classes  of  mysteries  and  miracle 
plays,  which  were  performed  in  the  open  air  on  wooden  scaffolds,  or  in  the 
churches  and  monasteries,  and  pageants,  for  which  also  the  place  of  per- 
formance and  the  decorations  were  temporary,  made  and  arranged  only  for 
the  occasion.     Our  modern  mountebank  shows,  and  the  shows  of  a  similar 


character  which  are  still  sometimes  seen  at  country  fairs,  are  the  representa- 
tives of  the  stage  of  the  middle  ages.  The  figures  in  our  cut  appear  as 
thouo-h  intended  to  represent  characters  in  the  plays  of  Terence  ;  but  they 
are  perfect  examples  of  the  costume  of  the  age  in  which  the  picture  was 
drawn  and  engraved. 


&    IF  la    JP£iMi. 


FUNERAL  PALL,  BELONGING  TO  THE  SADLERS' 

COMPANY. 


ERTAIN  of  the  merchant  companies  of  the 
city  of  London  still  possess  rich  monuments  of  the 
arts  of  former  days.  In  another  part  of  the  pre- 
sent work  we  have  given  a  plate  of  a  beautiful 
cup  in  the  possession  of  the  Goldsmiths'  Company. 
The  accompanying  plate  represents  a  superb  pall, 
which  remains  still  in  the  possession  of  the  Sadlers' 
Company,  which  appears  to  have  been  made  about 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  made 
of  a  rich  crimson  velvet ;  the  head,  foot,  and 
sides  being  embroidered  with  the  arms  of  the 
company,  between  which  are  the  figures  of  four  angels,  surrounding  the  letters 
I.H.S.  A  broad  gold  and  crimson  fringe  hangs  from  it.  On  one  side  of  the 
pall  is  embroidered  in  raised  work  of  gold  thread,  the  words 

31n  tc,  Bominc,  Spctamuo. 

Perhaps  this  last  word  was  intended  for  Speramus.     And  on  the  other  side,  in 
a  similar  style  of  embroidery,  is  the  inscription 

Kt  mc  contuntiE  in  ctcrnum. 

It  appears  that  it  was  formerly  a  custom  with  the  city  companies  to  lend 
not  only  their  halls  and  chapels,  but  even  their  plate  and  other  articles,  for 
the  celebration  of  public  ceremonies.  In  a  curious  article  "  On  City 
Funerals,"  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  January,  1813,  written  by 
Thomas  Adderly,  Esq.,  many  examples  are  quoted  to  show  that  the  city 
livery  halls  were  commonly  let  out  for  funerals  up  to  a  very  recent  period, 
and  the  pall  here  represented  was  perhaps  lent  for  such  purposes  on  main- 
occasions.  One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  extracts  cited  in  illustration  of 
the  subject  relates  to  the  celebrated  founder  of  Guy's  Hospital,  and  is  taken 
from  the  London  Post,  January  8-11,  17*25:  —  "Last  Thursday  night,  the 
corpse  of  Mr.  Thomas  Guy,  late  Citizen  and  Bookseller  of  London,  after 
having  lain  in  state  at  Mercers  C/iapel,  was  carried  with  great  funeral  pomp 
to  St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  in  Southwark  ;  where  it  is  to  remain  deposited  till 
the  finishing  of  his  Hospital  for  Incurables ;  and  then  to  be  laid  in  one  of  the 
squares,  with  a  Tomb-stone  and  his  Statue  upon  it." 


The  subject  of  funerals  naturally  leads  to  that  of  epitaphs ;  and  the  writer 
of  the  article  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  has  there  preserved  one  on  an 
humble  individual,  which,  besides  its  quaintness,  is  so  curiously  connected 
with  a  locality  interesting  to  every  reader  of  Shakespeare,  that  we  shall 
perhaps  not  be  blamed  for  reproducing  it  here.     It  runs  as  follows : — 

Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Robert  Preston,  late  Drawer  of  the  Boar's  Head  Tavern  in 
Great  East-Cheap,  who  departed  this  life  March  16,  Anno  Dom.  1730,  aged  27  years. 

Bacchus,  to  give  the  toping  world  surprize, 
Produc'd  one  sober  son,  and  here  he  lyes; 
Though  nurs'd  among  full  hogsheads,  he  defy'd 
The  charms  of  Wine,  and  ev'ry  vice  deny'd. 
O  Reader!  if  to  justice  thou  'rt  inclin'd, 
Keep  honest  Preston  daily  in  thy  mind. 
He  drew  good  Wine,  took  care  to  fill  his  pots ; 
Had  sundry  virtues  that  outweigh'd  his  faults. 
You  that  on  Bacchus  have  the  like  dependance, 
Pray  copy  Bob  in  measure  and  attendance. 

The  Sadlers'  Company  is  the  oldest  of  all  the  city  livery  companies,  having 
originated  out  of  the  ancient  gilda  Sellariorum,  which  is  believed  to  have  existed 
at  London  in  the  remote  ages  of  Anglo-Saxon  history.  Most  of  the  other 
companies  are  known  to  have  possessed  ornamental  funeral  palls  in  former 
times.  In  15G2,  the  Merchant  Tailors  had  no  less  than  three  palls.  In  the 
year  1572,  John  Cawood,  the  well-known  printer,  left  to  the  Stationers'  Com- 
pany a  pall  which  is  described  in  his  will  as  "a  herse  clothe,  of  clothe  of  gold, 
pouderyd  with  blew  velvet,  and  border'd  abought  with  blacke  velvet,  em- 
broidered and  steyned  with  blew,  yellow,  red,  and  green."  The  Company 
of  Fishmongers  still  possess  a  very  superb  pall,  resembling  in  general  form 
that  of  the  Sadlers'  Company,  and,  like  it,  supposed  to  be  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII.  or  of  that  of  Henry  VIII.  This  pall,  of  which  the  ornaments  are 
exceedingly  elaborate,  is  a  fine  specimen  of  ancient  art.  It  has  in  the  middle 
a  richly  worked  picture  of  St.  Peter,  surrounded  by  numerous  other  figures. 
The  whole  is  bordered  with  a  broad  fringe  of  gold  and  purple  thread. 

The  initial  letter  on  the  foregoing  page  has  been  furnished  by  a  printed 
book  of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In  the  earlier  ages  of  printing  it 
was  customary  to  leave  a  square  space  for  the  reception  of  the  initial  letters, 
which  were  afterwards  inserted,  according  to  the  will  of  the  possessor  of  the 
book,  by  the  same  illuminators  who  ornamented  the  manuscripts. 


CLOCK  PRESENTED  BY  HENRY  VIII.  TO 
ANNE  BOLEYN. 

OME  modern  writers  have  very  erroneously  stated 
that  house  clocks  are  of  late  invention.  That 
they  were  in  use  several  centuries  ago  is  shown 
by  the  number  of  allusions  to  them  found  in  old 
writers.  Sir  Samuel  Meyrick,  in  his  learned 
and  instructive  introduction  to  the  Specimens  of 
Ancient  Furniture,  has  shown  that  they  were  in 
use  in  Italy  in  the  thirteenth  century,  when  they 
are  mentioned  by  Dante.  The  Roman  de  la 
Rose,  composed  about  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  mentions  house 
clocks  as  then  well  known  in  France,  and  describes  them  as  being  made  "  with 
wheels  very  subtily  contrived  with  a  continuous  movement."  The  Dutch 
seem  to  have  been  at  this  time  celebrated  as  skilful  clock  makers  ;  and  clocks 
like  the  one  in  our  plate  are  even  now  called  Dutch  clocks.  The  old  name 
for  all  kinds  of  clocks  was  the  French  horloge ;  but  as  early  as  the  reign  of 
Richard  II.,  Chaucer  seems  to  apply  the  name  clock  to  small  house  clocks,  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  larger  clocks  or  horloges  of  the  abbeys  and  churches, 
when  he  says  of  the  cock, — 

"  Full  sikcror  was  his  crowing  in  his  loge, 
As  is  a  clock  or  any  abbey  orloge." 


AXY\X\^\\AXVlVLVLVyY\AA 


b  PHYETJM®u»IR©IIT  i 


^tihi  i'M@gnr°iHi  asm  u 


The  English  name  clock  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  French  cloche,  a 
bell.  A  clock  of  the  fifteenth  century  has  already  been  given  in  one  of  the 
wood-cuts  to  the  present  work.  Several  clocks  of  the  same  period  are  still 
preserved  in  England.  A  curious  table-clock  of  German  manufacture,  which 
appears  to  be  of  the  time  of  our  Queen  Elizabeth,  is  in  the  rich  museum  of  Sir 
Samuel  Meyrick  at  Goodrich  Court.  These  early  clocks  went  by  weights, 
without  pendulums.  The  pendulum  clocks  were  invented  towards  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  clock  represented  in  our  engraving  is  interesting  both  from  its 
singularity,  and  from  its  connection  with  English  history.  It  was  presented 
by  King  Henry  VIII.  to  his  second  wife,  the  accomplished  Anne  Boleyn,  on 
the  occasion  of  their  marriage  in  1533.  We  know  nothing  further  of  its 
history,  until  it  was  given  to  Horace  Walpole  by  Lady  Elizabeth  Germaine, 
and  by  him  was  placed  among  the  curiosities  of  his  villa  at  Strawberry  Hill. 
It  was  bought,  at  the  recent  sale 
of  his  collection,  by  the  Keeper 
of  the  National  Gallery  for  Her 
Majesty  the  Queen,  for  the  sum 
of  one  hundred  and  ten  pounds 
five  shillings.  This  clock  is 
made  of  silver  gilt,  richly  chased, 
and  engraved.  It  is  ornamented 
with  fleurs-de-lys,  miniature 
heads,  &c.  On  the  top  sits  a 
lion,  bearing  the  arms  of  Eng- 
land, which  are  also  on  the  sides. 
On  the  weights,  one  of  which  is 
represented  in  the  wood-cuts  on 
the  preceding  page,  are  the 
initial  letters  of  Henry  and 
Anne,  with  true-lover's  knots. 
On  the  band  above  is  the  royal 
motto,  and  on  the  one  below 
"  The  most  happye." 

Our  initial  letter,  of  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century, 
is  taken  from  a  collection  of 
drawings  and  illuminations  in 
the  possession  of  William  How- 
ard, Esq.  of  Hartley  House, 
Devon.  The  figure  in  the  pre- 
sent page  represents  an  elegant 
chandelier,  taken  from  a  painting 
by  Lucas  van  Leyden,  in  the 
Louvre  at  Paris. 


■ 


CUP  IN  THE  QUEEN'S  COLLECTION  AT  WINDSOR. 


figHtf 


THE  beautiful  cup  represented  in  the  accom- 
panying plate,  was  purchased  by  the  firm  of 
Messrs.  Rundell  and  Bridge,  at  the  sale  of  the  effects 
of  Wanstead  House,  in  1822,  and  sold  by  them  to 
King  George  IV.  It  is  now  preserved  in  the  Gold 
Plate  Room  at  Windsor  Castle.  The  bowl  is  formed 
of  a  nautilus  shell,  mounted  on  a  stand  of  silver  gilt, 
with  a  cover  of  the  same  material,  the  silver  being 
left  in  its  natural  colour  to  represent  the  flesh  of  the 
figures,  and  the  rows  of  beads  in  various  parts  of  the 
cup  and  the  lid.  The  height  of  the  whole  is  one  foot 
eight  inches. 

Mr.  John  G.  Bridge,  of  the  above  firm,  to  whom  we 
are  indebted  for  the  account  of  this  cup,  states  that  it 
was  frequently  seen  by  the  late  John  Flaxman,  R.A., 
who  expressed  his  opinion  that  it  was  a  work  of  the 
famous  Benvenuto  Cellini.  If  so,  it  was  probably 
executed  at  the  time  when  that  artist  was  in  France 
working  for  the  court  of  Francis  the  First ;  and  this 
supposition  is  strengthened  by  the  circumstance  of  the 
figure  of  Jupiter  bearing  a  close  resemblance  to  the 
profile  of  that  monarch.  According  to  the  Biogra- 
phie  Universellc,  a  silver  cup,  beautifully  chiselled  by 
the  same  artist,  was  bought  by  an  English  amateur 
travelling  in  Italy,  in  1774,  for  the  great  sum  of  eight 
hundred  bids. 


The  two  spoons  represented  below  are  preserved  in  the  collection  of 
M.  Sauvageot  at  Paris,  and  are  both  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  larger 
one,  made  of  silver  gilt,  and  calculated  to  be  carried  in  a  small  case  or  in  the 
pocket,  consists  of  three  parts,  which  join  together,  and  which  may  be  made 
to  serve  three  different  purposes.  The  handle  of  the  spoon  is  a  fork,  the 
prongs  of  which  fit  into  the  back  of  the  bowl.  The  end  of  the  fork  unscrews, 
and,  when  taken  off,  presents  a  toothpick.  The  handle  has  a  joint  just  above 
the  point  where  the  bifurcation  of  the  fork  commences,  and  by  which,  on 
removing  a  ring  which  covers  it,  the  whole  may  be  folded  up  so  as  to  occupy 
the  least  possible  room. 


ibcmt  1540. 


ir, 


In  -!  ■  a. "Windsor  Ca. 


CUP  OF  THE  TIME  OF  CHARLES  II. 


ARIOUS  circumstances  connected  with  this 
handsome  cup  combine  to  give  it  an  interest 
in  the  mind  as  well  of  the  historian  as  of 
the  lover  of  art.  It  is  said  to  have  belonged 
once  to  the  merriest  of  English  monarchs, 
Charles  II.  By  him  it  was  presented  to  a 
master  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  who  had 
rendered  important  services  to  his  unfortunate 
father,  Charles  I.,  amid  the  troubles  of  civil 
contention  which  signalized  his  reign.  It  had 
remained  in  the  possession  of  his  family  until  about  twenty  years  ago,  when 
their  altered  circumstances  induced  one  of  his  descendants  to  part  with  it, 
and  it  was  purchased  privately  by  Messrs.  Rundel  and  Bridge,  who  sold  it 
to  King  George  IV.,  and  it  is  now  preserved  among  the  other  choice  speci- 
mens of  ancient  plate  in  her  Majesty's  collection  at  Windsor. 

This  cup  is  of  silver  gilt,  except  the  filligree  work,  which  is  left  in  plain 
silver.     It  is  one  foot  ten  inches  and  a  half  high. 

The  figure  at  the  bottom  of  the  present  page  represents  a  portion  of  the 
rim  of  a  very  elegant  dish  of  the  enamelled  pottery,  which  was  invented  by  the 
celebrated  Bernard  Palissy,  in  the  preceding  century,  now  preserved  in  the 
collection  of  M.  Du  Sommerard,  at  Paris.  It  was  made  early  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  contains  in  the  centre  a  picture  representing  Henry  IV. 
of  France  and  his  family. 


The  piece  of  domestic  furniture  engraved  below,  made,  we  believe,  of  silver, 
is  preserved  in  a  collection  of  antiquities  at  Paris.  The  lady  suspended  by 
the  head  was,  without  doubt,  intended  to  be  the  representation  of  a  belle ;  but 
it  would  not  be  imagined  at  first  sight  that  she  was  at  the  same  time  designed 
to  serve  the  purpose  of  a  bell.  It  belongs  to  the  seventeenth  century,  when 
the  luxury  of  wires,  by  which  the  occupant  of  the  parlour  put  in  motion  the 
bell  in  the  kitchen,  was  not  yet  general. 


CUP  BELONGING  TO  THE  COMPANY  OF  THE 
GOLDSMITHS. 


I RCUM STANCES 

of  some  interest  are 
connected  with  the 
traditionary  history 
of  the  handsome  cup 
represented  on  the 
accompanying  plate. 
It  belongs  at  present 
to  the  company  of 
the  Goldsmiths,  one 
of  the  most  ancient 
and  wealthy  of  the 
city  companies  ;  it  is 
said  to  have  been 
presented  by  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  Sir  Mar- 
tin Bowes,  a  mem- 
ber of  this  company, 
and  lord-mayor  of 
London  in  the  year 
of  her  accession  to 
the  throne,  and  it  was  thus  probably  one  of  the  first  presents  which  she  gave 
as  queen  of  England.  Sir  Martin  Bowes  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  who  had  been  members  of  this  company,  to  whose  charities  he  was  a 
great  benefactor.  He  flourished  during  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
Edward  VI.,  and  was  lord  mayor  six  times,  namely  in  the  years  1546,  1547, 
1553,  1554,  1555,  and  1558,  the  latter  being  the  year  in  which  Elizabeth 
became  queen.  He  died  in  1560,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  of  St.  Mary 
Woolnoth,  where  he  had  founded  a  lecture.  Sir  Martin  resided  "against" 
Abchurch  lane,  in  that  parish,  which  was  the  part  of  the  city  where  the  gold- 
smiths were  settled.  The  company  of  Goldsmiths  was  formerly  very  rich  in 
old  plate,  but  in  1(567  (as  we  learn  from  Herbert's  History  of  the  City  Com- 
panies, vol.  ii.  p.  233),  a  considerable  portion  of  it  was  sold,  as  being  consi- 
dered superfluous.  The  cup  of  Sir  Martin  Bowes,  however,  escaped  this 
fate. 


. 


AN  HOUR-GLASS. 


Wj[  ANY  notices  of  the  use  of  hour-glasses  during 
the  sixteenth  and  part  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
turies might  be  gathered  from  contemporary 
writers.  In  the  times  of  our  forefathers,  the 
preachers  were  in  the  habit  of  measuring  their 
sermons  by  the  hour ;  and  the  hour-glass  was 
a  piece  of  furniture  belonging  to  the  pulpit.  It 
was  placed  beside  the  preacher,  who  regulated 
his  sermon  by  the  motion  of  the  sand.  It  seems 
to  have  been  used  equally  by  the  Catholics 
and  Protestants.  In  the  account  of  the  fall  of  the  house  in  the  Blackfriars, 
where  a  party  of  Romanists  were  assembled  to  hear  one  of  their  preachers,  in 
1623,  the  preacher  is  described  as  "  having  on  a  surplice  girt  about  his 
middle  with  a  linen  girdle,  and  a  tippet  of  scarlet  on  both  his  shoulders, 
being  attended  by  a  man  that  brought  after  him  his  book  and  hour-glass."  In 
the  preface  to  the  Bishops'  Bible,  printed  by  John  Day  in  1569,  Archbishop 
Parker  is  represented  with  an  hour- 
glass at  his  right  hand.  It  continued 
in  use  even  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century.  At  that  period  flourished 
Daniel  Burgess,  a  celebrated  noncon- 
formist, well  known  for  the  length  of 
his  sermons  and  the  quaintness  of  his 
illustrations.  On  one  occasion  he 
was  declaiming  with  great  vehemence 
against  the  sin  of  drunkenness,  and 
having  exhausted  the  usual  time  to 
which  the  length  of  the  sermon  was 
limited,  he  turned  the  hour-glass,  and 
said,  "  Brethren,  I  have  somewhat 
more  to  say  on  the  nature  and  conse- 
quences of  drunkenness,  so  let  us  have 
the  other  glass,  and  then" 

Hour  -  glasses 
were  often  very 
elegantly  form- 
ed, and  of  rich 
materials.  The 
one  represented 

I -H-rnjiiTTinffc    runneth  »   fo  mans  life 


in  our  plate,  at  present  in  the  cabinet  of  M.  Debruge  at  Paris,  is  richly 
enamelled  and  set  with  jewels.  We  learn  from  a  note  in  a  reprint  of  the 
tract  on  the  fall  of  the  house  in  Blackfriars,  above  mentioned,  that  the  frame 
of  one  preserved  in  old  St.  Dunstan's  church,  Fleet  Street,  was  of  massive 
silver,  and  that  it  was  some  years  ago  melted  down  and  made  into  two  staff 
heads  for  the  parish  beadles.  Several  churches  in  London  are  known  to 
have  possessed  hour-glasses. 

The  figure  at  the  foot  of  the  preceding  page  represents  a  bracket  for 
supporting  an  hour-glass,  still  affixed  to  the  pulpit  of  the  church  at  Hurst 
in  Berkshire.  It  is  made  of  iron,  painted  and  gilt.  In  St.  Alban's  church, 
AVood  Street,  London,  there  is  preserved  a  stand  and  hour-glass,  of  which  an 
engraving  is  given  in  Allen's  History  of  Lambeth.  The  hour-glass  is  in  this 
instance  placed  in  a  square  box,  supported  by  a  spiral  column,  all  of  brass. 
The  glass  itself  is  fitted  in  a  very  elegant  square  frame,  also  of  brass.  At 
Waltham  in  Leicestershire  there  is,  or  was,  also  preserved  an  iron  frame  for 
an  hour-glass,  mounted  on  three  high  wooden  brackets.  There  was  formerly 
one  in  the  church  at  Lambeth ;  we  learn  from  the  parish  accounts  there,  that 
in  1579,  one  shilling  and  fourpence  was  "payd  for  the  frame  in  which  the 
bower  standeth  ;"  and  in  1615,  six  shillings  and  eightpence  was  "  payd  for  an 
iron  hour-glass." 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  examples  of  the  use  of  this  instrument  in 
preaching  in  former  times.  The  reader  of  Hudibras  will  not  fail  to  call 
to  mind  the  comparison  there  made  to  the 

"  gifted  brethren,  preaching  by 
A  carnal  hour-glass." 

L'Estrange,  in  one  of  his  fables,  speaks  of  a  tedious  "  holder-forth "  who  was 
"  three  quarters  through  his  second  glass,"  and  the  congregation,  as  might  be 
imagined,  rather  fatigued  with  his  discourse.  And  the  satirical  Hogarth,  in 
his  picture  of  the  Sleepy  Congregation,  has  introduced  an  hour-glass  at  the 
left  haud  side  of  the  preacher. 


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